A funded master's in Germany, from Nigeria

This guide is for a Nigerian graduate who has worked for at least two years and wants a funded master's in Germany on the DAAD's EPOS scholarship, and who has never applied for anything like it. It takes you from your degree to your first term in Germany, one stage at a time: what you have just done, what you do now, where, what it costs, how long it takes, and what comes next. Start with "Where the window stands today": every course has its own window, and the table there shows which are open and which have closed. The table under it, "From today", tells you, from the day you open this guide, whether you can still finish this window or go to the closed plan (Part 8). Then read Part 1 once from top to bottom, and come back to the stage you are on. Every fee, date and rule in it comes from the official page that sets it. The pages were updated on 10 October 2026, and the guide speaks to you as at 12 October 2026; where this window's page has not said something yet, the guide says so and names the day it was read. A line that begins "Last year" gives the rule or date of the 2026/27 intake, only to show what has changed; it is never this window's rule. Where a line says "applicants who did it say", it is what applicants report from their own applications, not a rule.

Where the window stands today

If you hold a Second Class Lower or an HND, or you have worked less than two years since your degree, go first to Check that you can start (Part 1): it gives you the answer for your case. The countdown below is for a reader who meets the lines.

From 16 October 2026, the window for study from October 2027 is closed on Freiburg's, Heidelberg's and Oldenburg's courses: go to Part 8, the closed plan. If you sent your file in time, go to Stage 8 (the course's selection). Before you give up this intake, open the page of any other course you want (the last row of the table below): a course whose own page shows its window still open is open to you.

If you are reading this before 16 October 2026. Count the days from today to 15 October 2026, and find your row in "From today" below.

There is no single DAAD deadline. The DAAD's entry gives the deadline as "Depending on chosen study programme", and its list of courses for 2027/2028 reads "see website of the course" on every row. Each course's own page sets its window. On 12 October 2026 the windows for study from 2027 stand like this:

The hour. None of the three open courses prints an hour or a time zone for 15 October. Send your file by the end of 14 October in Lagos, so that no hour on the 15th can shut you out. No course in this guide takes a late file: Heidelberg says "Late and incomplete applications cannot be considered", and the DAAD's FAQ answers "The deadline for the course I am interested in is already over, can I still apply? This is not possible."

What has passed. TU Berlin's window closed on 31 August 2026. Freiburg's three online question sessions for this window ran on 7 July, 4 August and 1 September 2026, all at 14:00 CET. For Oldenburg, uni-assist's advice to apply "ideally at least 8 weeks before the deadline" pointed to 20 August 2026; that is advice, not the deadline, and the deadline is still 15 October.

What no page has said yet (updated on 10 October 2026). The hour each course closes. The windows of Flensburg and the other 20 courses, which only their own pages hold. What Heidelberg and Oldenburg charge a DAAD scholar in tuition. A DAAD brochure for 2027/2028: the DAAD's entry links none. The DAAD's list of countries, which the entry links, is still headed "validity 2024 - 2025", and no newer one is linked; Nigeria is on it.

What has changed since last year. Last year the DAAD's brochure (2026/27) gave Heidelberg's online application as "open from 15 May to 15 October"; this year Heidelberg's own page opens it on 15 August 2026. The close is 15 October again at all three courses: last year's dates still stand on two of this year's pages (Freiburg's How to apply page reads "Deadline October 15, 2025 for winter semester 2026 begin", and Oldenburg's application page prints "15th October 2025" in one place), and the course pages' 2026 dates are the ones that govern. TOEFL has a new scale since 2026: Freiburg asks 95 for a test sat before 2026 and 5 for one sat since, and TU Berlin 79 before January 2026 and 4.5 after.

What happens after the close. The courses choose first. Freiburg tells applicants "in February about the first results", then interviews its shortlist. Heidelberg informs candidates "by February". Oldenburg's DAAD applicants "will know by the end of January". The DAAD's FAQ: "The majority of the selection process will be finished in March." Study starts in mid-September 2027 at Heidelberg, mid-October 2027 at Freiburg and October 2027 at Oldenburg. Before it, the DAAD can give you a German course in Germany: its committee decides whether you need one and for how many months, six at most. Last year's brochure gave Freiburg's and Heidelberg's DAAD scholars 2 months; your Letter of Award gives yours.

From today: what you can still finish

The work that takes longest is the work you do not control: your employer's signed and stamped papers, your Nigerian university's transcript, an English result, and, for Freiburg, two referees who must email their own letters. Your letter of motivation is the one piece in your own hands, and it takes about a week of evenings (Stage 6). Each row says what must already be in your hands for you to send a complete file by 15 October 2026, the close of every open course in this guide. Freiburg asks more than Heidelberg and Oldenburg (two referees who send their own letters, and an English test), so each row answers for both.

The three-day answer. If you open this guide with three days left, you cannot start anything that waits on someone else: an employer's letter or a referee you ask today belongs to the closed plan, not to this window, and so does a transcript, unless your university's portal states a time inside the window (ABU's e-copy: 24 to 48 hours) and you send to Freiburg or Heidelberg. You can finish only if your employer's papers are already in your hands; your transcript is in your hands, or, for Freiburg or Heidelberg, requested today from a portal that states 24 to 48 hours (ABU's e-copy); your English evidence is in your hands, or, for Freiburg only, you book today a test for a date on or before 15 October and send its result by 31 October; and for Freiburg your two referees have already said yes. With those in hand, write your CV and your letter of motivation tonight and tomorrow (Stage 6), fill and sign the DAAD's two forms on 14 October (Stage 7), and send.

You need a computer with Word, a printer and a scanner, or a business centre that has them: the DAAD form is a Word file and Freiburg wants one PDF.

Where these times come from.

• The English result. Freiburg takes your English certificate up to 15 October, with one exception: "Exceptions are allowed only if applicants can upload the registration proof for a test date on or before October 15 and provide the test result until October 31. No exceptions to this rule." TOEFL takes a booking within 7 days of the test date for $49 more (about ₦65,317), and its scores reach your ETS account "3 days after your test date"; IELTS on computer gives its result in 1 to 5 days. No page states how far ahead a Lagos or Abuja centre has a free date: book today in your ETS account or on IDP Nigeria's test dates page, whichever shows a date on or before 15 October. Heidelberg and Oldenburg take a letter from your university that your studies were in English in place of a test (Stage 5), and UNILAG's "English as a Medium" letter costs ₦5,000.
• The referees. Freiburg: "Do not send the reference letters yourself." The referees send them directly to the course, and letters you send yourself "cannot be recognized". "Each referee should send the letter to info-meg@unr.uni-freiburg.de before Oct 15, 2026."
• The employer's papers. No page states how long an employer takes to sign. Applicants say these are the papers they chase in the last weeks.
• The transcript. ABU states 24 to 48 hours for an e-copy. UNILAG, UI, UNN and OAU state no time. A graduate wrote online in 2025 that a Nigerian university had still not sent a transcript applied for more than eight months earlier.
• Your letter. The DAAD asks one letter of at most two pages, identical for every course, and Freiburg a second letter of its own to its five questions (Stage 6). This guide gives it a week of evenings.
• Uni-assist (Oldenburg). Your whole file must be on uni-assist by the course's close: "Upload all of your documents into your My assist account within the application deadline." Its "ideally at least 8 weeks before the deadline" is its advice, so that it can check your papers and tell you of a gap in time. It evaluates papers from Africa in 2 to 3 weeks.

Part 1. Before you start

What the scholarship is

EPOS is the DAAD's programme of "Development-Related Postgraduate Courses". In the DAAD's own words, "With its development-oriented postgraduate study programmes, the DAAD promotes the training of specialists from development and newly industrialised countries." It funds a master's on one of the courses on its list, and only those: "Individual scholarships exclusively for Postgraduate courses in Germany that are listed on the List of all Postgraduate courses with application deadlines 2027/2028."

For a master's student the scholarship pays "monthly payments of 992 euros for graduates" (about ₦1.49 million), "Payments towards health, accident and personal liability insurance cover", and a "Travel allowance, unless these expenses are covered by the home country or another source of funding". It runs from 12 to 42 months, by course: for example 12 months for Heidelberg's MScIH and 24 months for Freiburg's MEG. If the DAAD's committee finds you need one, it includes a German course in Germany before the master's starts, of six months at most. Under certain conditions it adds a rent subsidy of up to EUR 350 a month (about ₦523,950) and allowances for a spouse and children. It does not pay tuition fees: "DAAD does not pay tuition fees for its scholarship holders." Nigeria is on the DAAD's list of countries for EPOS.

If you hold a 2:2 or an HND, or you have worked for less than two years since your degree, read Check that you can start first: it gives you the answer for your degree and your work.

The bodies you will deal with

The DAAD, the German Academic Exchange Service (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst), pays the scholarship. The Federal Foreign Office says it "does not offer any scholarships or travel grants directly"; it funds bodies such as the DAAD "from the federal budget" to run them, and sends scholarship seekers to the DAAD. The DAAD has no office in Nigeria: its Regional Office in Accra serves Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon. This guide calls it the DAAD's office for Nigeria. It answers questions by email at info.accra@daad.de, and in a consultation, in person in Accra or online by Webex, on Mondays 3pm to 6pm, Thursdays 10am to 11:30am (online only, in a group) and Fridays 11am to 1pm, Lagos time, booked on its appointment page, opens in a new tab; no fee is stated. Take to it the two questions this guide sends you to it with: whether your NYSC year counts, and whether a paid NGO job counts ("Check that you can start", below).

Your course is a master's programme at a German university, one of the 25 on the DAAD's EPOS list. You apply to the course, not to the DAAD. The course reads your file, shortlists, interviews and puts forward its candidates to the DAAD. Its own entry rules apply on top of the DAAD's: "All university courses have their own selection criteria which have to be met in addition to the DAAD's selection criteria."

Uni-assist is the body some German universities use to check foreign applications before the university sees them. Of the courses in this guide, only Oldenburg's SuRE takes its file on uni-assist. It charges a handling fee (Stage 7).

The DAAD Portal, also called My DAAD, is the DAAD's own website for applicants and scholarship holders. You do not apply on it for EPOS. You use it only if your course puts you forward to the DAAD: the DAAD then asks you to upload your file there, and it sends your award and your scholarship messages there (Stage 9). You open it with a DAAD-ID, which is free.

The German missions in Nigeria are the German Embassy in Abuja and the German Consulate General in Lagos. They decide your visa. The Consulate General in Lagos takes study visas through VFS, a company that receives applications for it.

The national visa is the visa for a long stay in Germany. The study visa is a national visa. It lets you enter Germany; it is not your permission to stay for the whole course.

The Ausländerbehörde is the foreigners authority in your German town. After you arrive, it turns your visa into a residence permit, the card that lets you stay for your studies.

The Anmeldung is your registration at the residents' registration office in your German town, within two weeks of moving in. You cannot open a bank account before it.

The blocked account is a German bank account a self-funded student fills with a year's money and draws from monthly, to prove to the visa officer that she can live. As a DAAD scholar you do not open one: the scholarship is your money proof (Stage 11).

The APS is an office that checks certificates for German universities. It exists in China, Vietnam and India only, and asks nothing of a Nigerian.

Anabin is the German database that rates foreign universities and degrees. It rates every Nigerian federal, state and private university "H+", recognised, and Nigerian polytechnics "H -".

The route this guide walks

Apply to an English-taught course, directly to the course, by the course's own deadline. This is the only route into EPOS. The DAAD says it twice: "Applications have only to be sent to the respective course directly!" and "Applications (or documents) sent to the DAAD will not be forwarded to the according courses!" No EPOS course takes the application on the DAAD Portal.

Choose English-taught courses. On the 2027/2028 list, 23 courses are taught in English, one in English and Spanish, and one in German. An English-taught course asks no German of you to apply or to get the visa ("Do you need German?", below).

Applicants who did it say the course chooses first. They describe one order every year: the whole file goes to the course; the course shortlists, often interviews, and nominates; the DAAD then emails the nominee to upload her file to the DAAD Portal; and the status on the portal changes, sometimes with no email. The DAAD's entry describes the same four steps.

What it asks of you. Two years of full-time, paid, related work after your degree, proved on letterhead. Months of waiting: from the October close to a result in February or March. A visa interview in Lagos or Abuja that can be refused. And some money of your own before the first payment: your papers, your English evidence, your trips to the visa interview, and at some courses your flight and your first month (Part 7).

This guide walks three courses as examples: Freiburg's MEG (sent by email), Heidelberg's MScIH (sent on its own web form) and Oldenburg's SuRE (sent on uni-assist). Each course takes its file differently. Your own course can be any of the 25.

On uni-assist (Oldenburg's SuRE). The same stages, but you send your file from your uni-assist account, pay its handling fee, and upload your WAEC result with its scratch card details. Each stage has an "On uni-assist" note where it differs.

On a German-taught course (TU Dresden's Textile Machinery and High Performance Material Technology). You need a German certificate at B1 when you apply, and DSH 2 or TestDaF 4 before the course starts. Each stage has an "On a German-taught course" note where it differs.

Do you need German?

Not for an English-taught course. You need no German to apply, and none for the visa.

• The DAAD. For courses in English it asks "Proof of adequate language skills, according to the regulations of the respective course." Its German line is only for courses taught in German: "a minimum German language level of B1 at the time of application is a requirement".
• The courses. Heidelberg's FAQ: "Knowledge of the German language is NOT required". Freiburg, Oldenburg and TU Berlin ask for English, not German.
• The visa. The missions' language table lists "Study in German (without prior course) C1" and "Study in German (with prior course) None", and has no line for study in English. The law asks for language proof for a study permit only where the university did not check it at admission (section 16b(1) of the Residence Act).
• The German course in Germany. "If you are awarded the scholarship, the DAAD can provide a preparatory German language course for you. The DAAD scholarship selection committee will assess whether such a German course is necessary for you and how many months (maximum six) are appropriate." Where your course makes it part of the scholarship, you attend it: Flensburg's page, for one, says "The German language course during the first two semesters of your stay in Germany is compulsory for DAAD scholarship holders." Last year's brochure gave Freiburg's and Heidelberg's DAAD scholars 2 months. It is in Germany, after the award. You do not need German to start it.

If someone told you that you need German, it is true only of the one German-taught course. A little German before you travel helps your first weeks: the German missions in Nigeria link free online courses from Deutsche Welle (learngerman.dw.com), and the DAAD names the Goethe-Institut and Deutsche-Uni Online (DUO).

If you are also applying for Chevening or the Commonwealth Master's

Chevening and the Commonwealth Master's Scholarship are the UK government's two scholarships for a one-year master's. Much of the work is the same. Do it once.

• Your transcript. EPOS asks a copy of "your full set of transcript of records", with "an explanation of the grading system if this is not part of the transcript". The Commonwealth Master's asks "Full transcripts detailing all higher education qualifications", every page, uploaded by you. Chevening asks no transcript to apply. One transcript serves all three: request the one that shows your CGPA and your university's grading scale (Stage 5).
• Your referees. EPOS asks your current employer's letter on letterhead, signed, stamped and dated, and Freiburg also an academic referee who emails the course directly. The Commonwealth Master's asks at least two signed references, uploaded by you as PDFs. Ask your employer and one lecturer once, for all of them (Stages 3 and 4).
• Your English. Neither the Commonwealth Master's nor Chevening asks for an English test: "The CSC does not require any candidates to take an IELTS (English language) test." Your EPOS course sets its own rule (Stage 5). An IELTS or TOEFL result you sit for EPOS is not needed for the Commonwealth Master's.
• Your work. EPOS asks at least two years' related work after your bachelor's, and Freiburg does not count internships or voluntary work. Chevening asks "at least 2800 hours of work experience, acquired after the completion of your undergraduate degree", "acquired over a minimum of two years", and counts full-time and part-time jobs, voluntary work and paid or unpaid internships. The Commonwealth Master's asks no work.
• Your words must match. The DAAD's checklist: "All information provided on the DAAD application form must match the information in your letter of motivation, in your CV, in applications to other degree programmes and in applications to other scholarship programmes." The DAAD's form asks whether you are applying for another scholarship, and says: "Please notify the DAAD immediately, should you be granted another scholarship." Use the same dates, the same jobs and the same titles in every application.
• The windows. The EPOS courses in this guide close on 15 October 2026. The Commonwealth Master's closes "16:00 BST on Tuesday 20 October" 2026, for study from September or October 2027. Chevening's Nigeria window for 2027-2028 is closed.
• The degree line. Chevening's current cycle asks that you "must have completed your undergraduate degree by October 2024". The Commonwealth Master's takes "a first degree of at least upper second-class (2:1) honours standard, or a lower second-class degree and a relevant postgraduate qualification (usually a Master's degree)". EPOS asks a 2:1 as the DAAD's office for Nigeria words it ("Check that you can start", below).

What one result does to another. You can apply for all three, but you hold only one. The DAAD: "It is not possible to combine several study or research scholarships (with a funding period of at least 7 months) within one educational period", and any second scholarship from an international provider above EUR 603 a month (about ₦902,691) is deducted from the DAAD's. The Commonwealth Master's: "Other scholarships, awards, or bursaries that cover the same costs may not be held concurrently." Chevening: "Scholars are not usually permitted to have more than one sponsor." An EPOS scholarship does not close Chevening to you afterwards: Chevening refuses only someone who has "previously studied in the UK on a UK government-funded scholarship". A Commonwealth or Chevening scholarship in the UK does close Chevening afterwards.

Check that you can start

The DAAD's lines, the lines of its office for Nigeria and your course's lines all apply to you, and the stricter one governs you. Here is the answer for your case, course by course.

• A 2:1 or a first: you qualify on the DAAD's line, and at Oldenburg and Heidelberg if your subject fits the course; at Freiburg your CGPA must also reach 2.5 on the German scale (below).
• A 2:2: you do not qualify, at any course, with or without a later master's.
• An HND: you do not qualify, at any course.
• Less than two years of full-time, paid, related work on the day you send your file: you do not qualify at any course this window.
• A latest degree older than six years on the day you send your file: you do not qualify, unless you hold a later academic degree inside the six years.
• A master's already held: you qualify if your bachelor's meets the lines above, and you must say in your letter why you need a second master's.

Your degree class.

• A 2:1 or a first. The DAAD asks "far above average results (upper third)", and its Regional Office in Accra, the DAAD office for Nigeria, words it for a master's: "Bachelor's Degree graded at least Second Class (Upper Division)". Oldenburg asks "at least a Bachelor's Degree with a grade in the Second Upper Division or comparable degree". Heidelberg's page names no class of its own. Freiburg converts your grade to the German scale and asks 2.5 or better: "Your average grade / GPA from the Bachelor must be equivalent to minimum 2.5 or better, under the German Degree System (1.0 max - 4.0 pass)". Its pages name the formula it uses but do not print it, so no page tells you what your CGPA becomes. Send your file to Freiburg all the same (its pages name no application fee), and put a second course beside it. With a week or more before the close, email info-meg@unr.uni-freiburg.de your CGPA and your university's grading scale and ask whether it reaches 2.5; if the answer is no, put another course in Freiburg's place.
• A 2:2. You do not qualify for EPOS at any course. The DAAD's office for Nigeria asks "Bachelor's Degree graded at least Second Class (Upper Division)", and that line governs you whatever your class rank or your converted grade. A later master's does not change the class of your bachelor's: Freiburg says so in words ("we can only consider your bachelor grade, even if your last degree is a Master´s degree"), and Oldenburg asks "the Second Upper Division". More years of work do not change it either. Part 5 says what you do instead.
• An HND. You do not qualify for EPOS at any course. The DAAD asks for "a Bachelor's degree (normally four years) in a related subject", and its office for Nigeria a "Bachelor's Degree". Anabin rates the Higher National Diploma as a "Fachschule" qualification, school-based training below university level, not a bachelor's, and the German office that compares foreign degrees, the ZAB, says of an HND: "You cannot apply for a Statement of Comparability for this degree." Freiburg's own checker for its regular round lists the bachelor's degrees it takes (BA, BBA, BSc, BCom, BCA, LLB, BE, BTech, BEd, MBBS) and no HND. A Bachelor of Technology is a degree in anabin's terms: check its anabin entry and your course's subject line before you apply.
• A three-year bachelor's. The DAAD: "Please check with the university you are interested in, whether you can apply." Heidelberg asks for "a four-year Bachelor's degree (or equivalent qualification, at least 240 ECTS)", so a three-year bachelor's does not qualify there. Freiburg takes an equivalent course "of at least three years".

Your degree's subject. Each course sets its own subject line. Oldenburg: "Applicants must have successfully completed a regular academic programme in Engineering or Natural Science." Heidelberg: a bachelor's "in a Public Health relevant discipline (medical degrees and others)". Freiburg: a bachelor's in environmental science, engineering, social science, economics or law. For every other course, read its page (Stage 2).

Your grade on paper. Your transcript must show your grade as a number. Freiburg: "Your Bachelor´s transcript must contain a final weighted average/CGPA and a grading scale. The grade must be NUMERIC (not alphabetical or qualitative)." A class alone, such as "Second Class Upper", is not enough there: your transcript must carry your CGPA and the scale, or you attach an annex that gives them (Stage 5).

Your work.

• Two years, after your bachelor's, counted on the day you send your file. "The requirement two years of (relevant) work experience refers to the time of your application." The checklist: "a minimum of two years of relevant work experience at the time of the application and after completion of your first university degree". Under two years, you do not qualify at any course: TU Berlin calls the two years "mandatory", Oldenburg calls related work "mandatory for DAAD applicants", and Heidelberg's own course asks one year but, for the DAAD-EPOS scholarship, the DAAD's two years govern.
• Full-time work only. Freiburg's form says "for the DAAD scholarship you need at the time of application (October 2026) at least 2 years of full time work experience, gained after your first degree." No page of the DAAD or of another course counts part-time work at any rate, so count your full-time jobs only, at every course.
• Paid work only, proved on paper. The DAAD's line is that you work "either for a public authority or a state or private company in a developing country" on "directives and projects with emphasis on development policies". Freiburg: "internships and volontary work are not accepted", and work in academia, "like teaching and research at a university or research institute", counts "only in very exceptional cases". TU Berlin: "2-year-work experience is mandatory and only counts with the respective work certificates." Count each job only if your employer gives you a work certificate for it (Stage 3).
• Related to your course. Oldenburg asks experience "in the field of or related to (Renewable) Energy and/or Rural Development". Where a course names no field, your work is related if it serves the subject the course teaches, and your letter of motivation shows how it serves development (Stage 6). Choose your courses (Stage 2, or Stage C5 in the closed plan) before you count your work.
• NYSC. Do not count your service year. No EPOS page asks for your NYSC certificate, no EPOS page counts the service year as work, and Freiburg refuses internships and voluntary work. Only if your two years reach with NYSC and not without it, write to the DAAD's office for Nigeria, info.accra@daad.de, at least a month before the close you aim at: "I am a Nigerian graduate applying for EPOS. Does my National Youth Service Corps year count towards the two years of relevant professional experience?" If it answers yes in writing, count the year and keep the reply in your file. If it answers no, or has not answered a week before the close, count without it and apply in the first window whose close falls after your two paid years are complete (Part 8).
• A paid NGO job. Count it if it is paid, full-time, related to your course and proved by work certificates: a paid job is not the "volontary work" Freiburg refuses. The DAAD's line names "a public authority or a state or private company", and no page says whether an NGO job counts. So send your file with your NGO years counted, and in the same week write to the DAAD's office for Nigeria, info.accra@daad.de: "I am a Nigerian graduate applying for EPOS. I have worked <number of years> full time, paid, at <NGO>, on <work>. Does this count as the two years of relevant professional experience?" If it answers no, count your NGO years out, and plan the window in which your other paid work makes two years (Part 8).

The age of your degree. "Is there an age limit? No, but the latest academic degree should not be older than 6 years." Freiburg counts it "at the time of application (October 2026)"; Heidelberg: "your last academic degree may not be older than 6 years"; the office for Nigeria: "Most recent academic degree must have been obtained within the last six years". Count from the earlier of two dates, your last exams and the date on your certificate: if either date falls more than six years before the day you send your file (before 14 October 2020 for a file sent on 14 October 2026), take your degree as too old. A later academic degree, such as a master's, is your latest degree, and its date is the one that counts.

If you already hold a master's. "Candidates applying for master's courses and who already hold a master's degree must make a well-argued case as to why they should be funded for another postgraduate degree. Please explain why you would like to study for this particular further master's course and how it expands on the one you hold already." Say it in your letter of motivation (Stage 6). Your bachelor's class still decides your degree line, and at Freiburg only your bachelor's grade counts.

If you have finished but your certificate is not out. "If your official degree certificate is not available yet, please provide confirmation from your university." Freiburg takes "a letter from the University that confirms that the study programme has been completed successfully and indicates the final grade, together with a transcript".

Your nationality and where you live. Nigeria is on the DAAD's list of countries for EPOS. The DAAD's application box asks for "the country in which you are living and from which you are applying", and Nigeria is one of its options.

Time in Germany. Anyone "resident in Germany for longer than 15 months at the application deadline" cannot be taken.

Who the DAAD looks for. People who "can prove their motivation is development-related" and are "expected to take on social responsibility and initiate and support processes of change in their personal and professional environment after their training/scholarship". Freiburg: "the DAAD is looking for well-trained local experts, who can play a significant role in the sustainable development of their countries."

Money. You need no money to apply beyond your papers and fees (Part 7). The scholarship's EUR 992 a month is the same sum the German missions ask a self-funded student to show for a study visa.

Part 2. The whole journey on one page

Stage 1. Check you fit. Your degree class, your two years of work, the age of your degree. Free. One evening.

Stage 2. Choose up to three courses, and read each course's page. From the DAAD's list of 25. Each course has its own window, its own method of taking the file and its own entry lines. Put them in your order of priority. Free. An evening or two.

Stage 3. Get your employer's papers. Work certificates for two years and your current employer's letter of recommendation, on letterhead, signed, stamped and dated. Free. Ask in the first week.

Stage 4. Ask your referees. Freiburg asks two letters, one from your employer and one from a lecturer, emailed by the referees themselves. Heidelberg and Oldenburg ask your employer's letter. Free.

Stage 5. Get your papers out. Your transcript with your CGPA and grading scale (₦5,000 to ₦25,000 at the universities in this guide), your degree certificate, your WAEC result where a course asks it, your passport, and your English evidence: a letter that your degree was taught in English (₦5,000 at UNILAG), or IELTS (₦299,000) or TOEFL ($170, about ₦226,610). From a day to months for the transcript.

Stage 6. Write your CV and your letter of motivation. A Europass CV with no unexplained gaps, and one letter for all your courses, at most two pages. Free. A week of evenings.

Stage 7. Fill and sign the DAAD's forms, and send your file to each course. The DAAD application form and the checklist, signed with a pen. Freiburg by email, Heidelberg on its web form, Oldenburg on uni-assist. Free at Freiburg and Heidelberg; EUR 75 (about ₦112,275) on uni-assist. By 15 October 2026; send by the end of 14 October.

Stage 8. The course's selection: the shortlist and the interview. The course reads, shortlists and interviews, often online. Free. Results from the end of January to February.

Stage 9. Upload your file to the DAAD Portal when the DAAD writes. Only if your course puts you forward. Free. Up to March, when the DAAD finishes most of its selection.

Stage 10. Your result, and what you do next. The Letter of Award on the portal; the Declaration of Acceptance back. "The majority of the selection process will be finished in March." If not selected: Part 8.

Stage 11. Your visa. The national visa for study, applied for online, then an interview in Lagos (through VFS) or, if you live in one of the northern states, in Abuja by email. No visa fee for a DAAD scholar. Several weeks, "in individual cases even months".

Stage 12. Travel to Germany. In time for the German course, months before the semester. Keep money for your flight and your first month.

Stage 13. Arrival and your first term. Register your address within two weeks, open a bank account, enrol, apply for your residence permit, and start the German course. Your insurance is the DAAD's.

Stage 14. When the course ends. Up to 18 months in Germany to look for a job, or home to the work the DAAD funded you for.

The money. Up to your result, you pay only your transcript (₦5,000 to ₦25,000 at the universities in this guide), your English evidence (₦5,000 for UNILAG's English as a Medium letter, ₦299,000 for IELTS, or $170 for TOEFL), uni-assist's EUR 75 if a course uses it, and a passport if you have none. After the award you pay no visa fee; you pay your trip to the visa interview, your courier envelope, and at some courses your flight and your first month in Germany. The scholarship pays EUR 992 a month (about ₦1.49 million), your health, accident and liability insurance, a travel allowance and the German course. It does not pay tuition: Freiburg's course charges a DAAD EPOS scholar none, and for Heidelberg's and Oldenburg's fees no page says what a DAAD scholar pays, so you email each course in Stage 2 (Part 7).

The time. The windows in this guide close on 15 October 2026. The courses decide from the end of January to February; the DAAD's selection runs to March. Your visa follows, then the German course in Germany if your award gives you one (last year, 2 months before the master's at Freiburg and Heidelberg), and the master's from September (Heidelberg) or October (Freiburg, Oldenburg) 2027. From the close to your first day of study is about eleven months.

On uni-assist. The same order. Stage 7 runs in your uni-assist account, and the deadline is the course's: your file complete and paid in My assist by 15 October. Uni-assist's "ideally at least 8 weeks before the deadline" is its advice, so that it can tell you of a gap in time.

On a German-taught course. Your B1 German certificate comes in Stage 5, before you send your file, and the course in Germany can run up to six months.

Part 3. Stage by stage

Stage 1. Check you fit

Back to the short stages

You want the scholarship and you hold a degree. Now check your degree, your work and your dates against the DAAD's lines and your course's, before you spend anything.

Do.

1. Read "Check that you can start" in Part 1 against your own papers: the class and the CGPA on your transcript, the date on your degree certificate, and the start and end dates of every job since your degree.
2. Count your work. Add up only full-time, paid, related jobs after your bachelor's, each with a work certificate you can get. Related means related to the courses you will choose, so read their entry lines first (Stage 2). On the day you send your file, they must make two years. Part-time jobs do not count. If any of your two years was a paid NGO job, follow Part 1 ("A paid NGO job").
3. Count the age of your latest degree. On the day you send your file, it must be no older than six years. Count from the earlier of your last exams and the date on your certificate.
4. Do not count your NYSC year. If your two years reach only with it, follow Part 1 ("NYSC").

Where. The DAAD's EPOS entry in its scholarship database, opens in a new tab, with its FAQ, opens in a new tab and its checklist, opens in a new tab; the DAAD office for Nigeria's Master's degree, opens in a new tab page. The DAAD's own address for EPOS, www.daad.de/epos, opens a German page for universities; the rules for applicants are in the scholarship database entry.

What you need. Your transcript, your degree certificate, your employment letters.

Cost and time. Free. One evening.

You are done when you have written down your class and CGPA, your degree's date, your two years of work job by job, and the date by which they make two years.

If it goes wrong. With a 2:2 or an HND, EPOS is not open to you: go to Part 5, where the guide says what you do. With less than two years of full-time, paid work, go to Part 8 and send your file in the first window whose close falls after your second year is complete. If your degree is older than six years and you hold no later degree, EPOS is not open to you.

From applicants who did it. Applicants ask more about what counts as the two years than about anything else: volunteering, teaching in a final year, work before the degree was awarded. No reply they quote comes from the DAAD. A seller's advert in 2026 lists NYSC, internships and volunteering as experience; no EPOS page says so, and Freiburg refuses internships and voluntary work.

Same as Chevening and the Commonwealth Master's. Chevening counts voluntary work and internships towards its 2,800 hours; EPOS courses do not. Count each funder's work by its own line.

Next. Choose your courses (Stage 2), the same day.

The DAAD's pages and the courses' pages in this chapter were updated on 10 October 2026.

Stage 2. Choose up to three courses, and read each course's page

Back to the short stages

You fit. Now choose your courses from the DAAD's list, and read each course's own page, because each course sets its own window, takes the file as it chooses and adds its own lines.

What the DAAD allows. "You can apply for up to three courses. If applying to more than one course, please list courses in order of priority in the DAAD application forms (see 7. Choice of host university/institution in Germany) and do not change the priorities in the according application form! In this case, you must apply to each of the universities of your choice directly." With more than one course you send one identical letter of motivation to each course (Stage 6). Applying to a course does not need an admission first: "Do I need to be accepted for the masters programme before I apply for the scholarship? No, that is not necessary."

Step 1. Choose from the DAAD's list

Do. Open the DAAD's List of all Postgraduate courses with application deadlines 2027/2028, opens in a new tab and choose the courses that follow from your degree and your work. The scholarship is granted only for the courses on the current list: a master's that is not on it is not funded. Every row on the list reads "see website of the course" for the deadline. The 2027/2028 list, with each course's page as the list links it:

The lengths are without the German course. The list is stamped "Stand 06/2026".

Which courses take your degree. Each course sets its own first-degree line, and only its own page gives it. For the three courses this guide walks:

• An engineering degree: Oldenburg's SuRE ("a regular academic programme in Engineering or Natural Science") and Freiburg's MEG.
• A natural science degree: Oldenburg's SuRE.
• An environmental science, social science, economics or law degree: Freiburg's MEG.
• A degree relevant to public health, medical degrees among them: Heidelberg's MScIH.

For every other course on the list, read its page for its subject line before you choose it. The DAAD's entry also sends you to the EPOS brochure for each course's description, but links no brochure for 2027/2028: read each course's description, its extra papers and its German course on the course's own website.

Step 2. Read each course's own page, and write down six things

Do. For each course you choose, open its page and write down: its window and closing date; how it takes the file (email, its own form, or uni-assist); its documents, in its order; its English rule; its entry lines on top of the DAAD's (degree subject, grade, work); and its fees. If a course charges tuition, email it the day you choose it: "Do DAAD-EPOS scholars pay your tuition fee?" Keep the reply. The answer decides your visa file, so you need it before you accept an award (Stage 10): if you pay, the missions ask "Proof of payment for the first year of study" (Stage 11); if you do not, the course's letter goes in its place. Send your file whether or not the answer has come. Three examples, from the courses' own pages:

Freiburg, Environmental Governance (MEG). 24 months, from mid-October; for DAAD scholars a German course before it (last year's brochure: 2 months); a seven-week internship during the course.

• Window. "Application phase for winter semester 2027/28 15 June to 15 October 2026". "The DAAD-EPOS scholarship application has to be submitted one year ahead of admission (15 October 2026 for study begin October 2027). The applications for the MEG programme and for the scholarship are linked, meaning that the required documents compose an application for both." No hour.
• Sending. One PDF, by email, to info-meg@unr.uni-freiburg.de (Stage 7).
• Who it takes. Young professionals from developing countries (the page's "DAC countries"; Nigeria's place is on the DAAD's list, Part 1) with an academic degree "not older than six years at the time of application (October 2026)", "a minimum of 2 years of relevant professional experience (post Bachelor, at the time of application)", "an academic degree above average (upper third)", and no more than 15 months in Germany. Scholarship applicants "must fulfill both the DAAD EPOS requirements AND the admission criteria for the MEG programme". Its selection rules admit a first degree "in einem umweltwissenschaftlichen, ingenieurwissenschaftlichen, sozialwissenschaftlichen, wirtschaftswissenschaftlichen oder rechtswissenschaftlichen Bachelorstudiengang" (environmental science, engineering, social science, economics or law) "oder in einem gleichwertigen mindestens dreijährigen Studiengang" (or an equivalent course of at least three years). Freiburg converts your CGPA to the German scale and asks 2.5 or better, by a formula its pages do not print; Part 1 ("Your degree class") says what you do.
• How it ranks. Your first degree's grade, improved by up to 0.2 for strong references and up to 0.5 for a strong letter of motivation, and by up to 0.5 in all for vocational training, related practical work and a stay abroad. No world region takes more than 35 percent of the places; "Afrika und Naher Osten" (Africa and the Middle East) is one region.
• English. IELTS band 7 on computer or online; TOEFL iBT 95 for a test sat before 2026, or 5 on the scale TOEFL has used since 2026 (TOEFL no older than two years); Cambridge C1 or PTE Academic 76 (Stage 5).
• Fees. Freiburg is in Baden-Württemberg, where non-EU students pay EUR 1,500 a semester, but "students from developing countries who have been awarded a DAAD-EPOS scholarship are exempted from paying study fees". Its registration fee is in Stage 13, where its two pages print two sums.
• Questions. Esther Muschelknautz, +49 (0)761-203-3607, info-meg@unr.uni-freiburg.de. Its online question sessions ran on 7 July, 4 August and 1 September 2026, all at 14:00 CET; all three have passed.

Heidelberg, Master of Science in International Health (MScIH). 12 months, from mid-September 2027; for DAAD scholars a German course before it (last year's brochure: 2 months, and at most 25 participants).

• Window. "The application period for DAAD-EPOS Scholarships has started and will be open until 15 October 2026." "DAAD-EPOS Scholarship Application Timeline: from 15 August 2026 to 15 October 2026". No hour. "All applications will be reviewed after the application form closes on 15 October."
• Sending. On its web form (Stage 7); its how-to-apply page says "The application portal is currently being updated."
• Who it takes. "a four-year Bachelor's degree (or equivalent qualification, at least 240 ECTS) in a Public Health relevant discipline (medical degrees and others)": 240 ECTS are the European credits of a four-year bachelor's, as Heidelberg's own line pairs them. It asks "at least one year of relevant work experience, including Public Health experience in low- and middle-income settings". Heidelberg's own course asks at least one year of work, but for the DAAD-EPOS scholarship the DAAD's two years apply. With one year, you cannot apply for the scholarship at Heidelberg either. For the DAAD-EPOS round, "your last academic degree may not be older than 6 years."
• English. B2 on the European scale, from "original score reports from authorised test centres", or your degree taught and assessed in English, with your transcripts and "an official letter from the institution to certify that English was the sole or principal language of instruction" (Stage 5).
• Fees. "There is no application fee." Tuition is "Full-Time EUR 14,100" (about ₦21.1 million) for the year, plus an administration fee and a student services contribution each semester. Last year's brochure (2026/27) said "(special arrangements apply to DAAD scholarship holders)"; no Heidelberg page says what a DAAD scholar pays this window (updated on 10 October 2026). Email the course Step 2's question the day you choose it, and keep the reply.
• Questions. Admissions: Anke Nitschke-Edert, +49 (0)6221/56-7190, msc_ih@uni-heidelberg.de; the programme: office.teaching@uni-heidelberg.de, +49 (0)6221/56-4312.

Oldenburg, Sustainable Renewable Energy Technologies (SuRE). 24 months, from October 2027. It usually has 6 DAAD EPOS places, "not country-specific".

• Window. "Application Deadlines (for study start in October 2027) for DAAD EPOS sponsored study spots: October 15th, 2026 (one year before entry)". The application button is available from 15 August. No hour. Last year's dates, 15 October 2025 and 15 January 2026, still stand in one place on the same page; this window's EPOS close is 15 October 2026.
• Sending. On uni-assist only: "There is no possibility to hand in a paper application, neither to apply via email or any other digital channel!" Upload PDFs; "zip-files are not accepted!" (Stage 7).
• Who it takes. "Applicants must have successfully completed a regular academic programme in Engineering or Natural Science." Work "in the field of or related to (Renewable) Energy and/or Rural Development is appreciated; mandatory for DAAD applicants." "at least a Bachelor's Degree with a grade in the Second Upper Division or comparable degree".
• English. TOEFL iBT, IELTS, Cambridge, PTE Academic, TOEIC, telc and UNIcert at B2, not expired, or "If the medium of instruction at your college was 100% English, you can simply hand in a confirmation of this as a substitute" (Stage 5).
• Fees. "Tuition fee (per semester) 1500 €" (about ₦2.25 million), and a semester contribution of about EUR 400 (about ₦598,800), of which "DAAD-scholars must pay 75,00 € less, as they do not have to pay the administration fee". Its pages do not say in words whether the DAAD scholarship covers the tuition. Email the course Step 2's question the day you choose it, and keep the reply.
• If you are not chosen for the DAAD. You can then be taken as a self-financing applicant on SuRE "by sending a financial statement."

A course with an earlier window: TU Berlin, Urban Management. "The application period for DAAD scholarships is June 15th until August 31st of the year BEFORE you intend to start the UM course!" Its window for October 2027 closed on 31 August 2026. "The DAAD can award no more than three scholarships for this degree programme." So not every EPOS course closes on 15 October: read each one.

Step 3. Put your courses in order

Do. Write your courses on the DAAD form in your order of priority, and give the same order in your letter of motivation (Stage 6). Never change the order between applications. Choose courses whose results come in time for each other: applicants who did it in 2025 were warned by the DAAD that a first choice deciding in July and a second closing in May "overlap", so a no from the first came too late for the second. The three courses in this guide close on the same day and decide in the same months.

What you need. Your transcript (for the entry lines), your notes from each course page.

Cost and time. Free. An evening or two.

You are done when you have up to three courses written in order, each with its window, how it takes the file, its documents, its English rule, its entry lines and its fees.

If it goes wrong. If a course's window has closed, it is closed: "The deadline for the course I am interested in is already over, can I still apply? This is not possible." Choose another course still open, or go to Part 8 for the next window.

From applicants who did it. Applicants who were lost at the start read the DAAD's list and not the course page. Applicants choose three health courses (Charité, Heidelberg, Bonn) as their three choices; one applied to all three and was interviewed only by her third choice. A Nigerian applicant to International Media Studies in Bonn, a course that is not on this year's EPOS list, applied in February 2026 and heard in early July.

On a German-taught course. The one German-taught course on the list is TU Dresden's Textile Machinery and High Performance Material Technology, "offered in German only". It asks "German language skill to start the master's course: minimum DSH 2 or TestDaF (level 4) or Telc Deutsch C1 Hochschule", and "At the time of application, a completed B1 certificate is required."

Same as Chevening and the Commonwealth Master's. These are German courses for EPOS only. Chevening and the Commonwealth Master's need UK university courses of their own.

Next. Ask your employer for your papers (Stage 3), the same week.

The DAAD's list and pages and the courses' pages in this chapter were updated on 10 October 2026.

Stage 3. Get your employer's papers

Back to the short stages

You have chosen your courses. Now ask your employers for the papers that prove your two years and recommend you. Ask in the first week: applicants say these are the papers they chase in the last weeks, and the DAAD rejects a paper whose signature or stamp is missing.

What the DAAD asks. Two papers from your employers.

• Work certificates. "Certificate(s) of Employment from the employer(s) showing at least two years of relevant work experience after the Bachelor's degree up to the time of application. The certificate of employment from the current employer should, if possible, include" a line that you will be re-employed "after returning to the home country." The checklist sets their form: "Work certificate(s) for at least two years of relevant professional experience on headed paper, including an original (not scanned) or code certified digital signature, the date of issue and a stamp."
• Your current employer's letter of recommendation. "Letter of recommendation from your current employer; the letter must include official letterhead, signature and official stamp and must be of current date". The checklist: "on headed paper, including an original (not scanned) or code certified digital signature, the date of issue and a stamp."

What the courses add.

• Freiburg: "The letter must state the exact dates of employment in retrospective. An employment contract or payl slip cannot be accepted", and the papers are "written on headed paper, including an original (not scanned) or code certified digital signature, the date and a stamp". "If a stamp or a signature when required on a document is missing, DAAD will reject the application."
• Heidelberg: "at least one letter of recommendation from your most recent employer(s). The letter needs to be of recent date, include the official letter head and office stamp of place of employment and it should be hand-signed by your referee."
• Oldenburg: "Letter of recommendation from your current employer (if possible)" and "Certificate(s) of Employment from employer(s) (if possible)"; "the letter needs to be on official company letterhead, signed and stamped", and "Your referee can also send the letter by email from his or her company email account. Public providers like gmail are not acceptable."
• TU Berlin: "2-year-work experience is mandatory and only counts with the respective work certificates."

Do.

1. List every job since your degree with its start and end dates, the same dates as on your CV.
2. Ask each employer, in writing, for a work certificate that states: your exact start and end dates, your position, your main tasks and responsibilities, and that it was full-time: Freiburg counts full-time work only (Part 1, "Your work"). On letterhead, signed by hand, dated, stamped.
3. Ask your current employer, in the same message, for a letter of recommendation of today's date, on letterhead, signed by hand, stamped, and, if your employer will write it, saying it will take you back after your course in Germany.
4. Give your employer this list: letterhead, a signature in ink, a stamp, today's date, not sealed. If your employer has no stamp, ask for a line in the letter saying why; Freiburg asks referees without a stamp to "shortly explain why".
5. Collect the signed originals and scan them in colour.

What you need. Your list of jobs and dates; your manager's and your HR office's contacts.

Cost and time. Free. No page states how long an employer takes. Ask in the first week.

You are done when you hold signed, stamped, dated work certificates covering two years after your degree, and your current employer's signed, stamped letter of recommendation of current date.

If it goes wrong. If a past employer has closed or will not answer, count only the work you can prove with a certificate: TU Berlin counts work "only" with its certificates. If your gap between jobs is longer than three months, explain it in your CV (Stage 6). A contract or a payslip is not a work certificate at Freiburg.

From applicants who did it. One applicant had the line about re-employment written into the employer's recommendation: "It is not mandatory, but it's better if you can have it."

Same as Chevening and the Commonwealth Master's. Chevening proves its 2,800 hours with its own papers; the Commonwealth Master's asks no work.

Next. Ask your referees (Stage 4), the same week.

The DAAD's checklist and FAQ and the courses' pages in this chapter were updated on 10 October 2026.

Stage 4. Ask your referees

Back to the short stages

You have asked your employer. Now ask the people who write your references, in the same week. Each course sets its own rule on how many, who, and who sends them.

What each course asks.

• Freiburg: two letters, sent by the referees themselves. "one from your current employer (DAAD requirement); one from an academic teacher or supervisor (MEG requirement)". "Do not send the reference letters yourself." The referees send them directly to the course, and letters you send yourself "cannot be recognized". "Each referee should send the letter to info-meg@unr.uni-freiburg.de before Oct 15, 2026. You must fill in the names and contact dates of your chosen referees in the MEG application form, page 2."
• Freiburg's guideline for referees. The letter is "written in English or German and typed", "typically 500-1,000 words long and normally not exceed two pages", "dated and not more than one year old", "signed by the author", "on a letter head", "stamped", and gives the author's "institutional or work email address and telephone number; letters with only a personal email address cannot be accepted". It is sent "as a PDF file named with your surname and the surname of the student (<XXX for YYY.pdf>)". (The guideline's last line names 15 May, the regular round's date; for EPOS the scholarship page's 15 October governs.)
• Heidelberg: your employer's letter (Stage 3), with your application.
• Oldenburg: your employer's letter (Stage 3), which your referee can email from a company address.
• TU Berlin: "Two letters of reference (hand-signed)".

How the references count at Freiburg. Each reference is graded from 1 to 5. An average from 1.0 to 1.5 improves your ranking grade by 0.2; from 1.5 to 2.5, by 0.1. A strong reference moves you up the list.

Do.

1. Choose your referees: your current manager, and, for Freiburg, a lecturer who taught you in your degree.
2. Call each one this week. Tell them what you are applying for, the course, and your closing date.
3. Send each one, in writing: the course's rules above, your CV, and the email address the letter goes to, for Freiburg info-meg@unr.uni-freiburg.de with the file named "<their surname> for <your surname>.pdf".
4. For Freiburg, write their names and contacts on page 2 of the MEG form (Stage 7).
5. Two days before the close, ask each Freiburg referee whether the letter has gone.

Where. Freiburg's DAAD scholarship page, opens in a new tab and its information for referees, opens in a new tab.

What you need. Each referee's full name, position, institution, work email and phone number.

Cost and time. Free. Ask each referee the day they will send it.

You are done when each referee has agreed in writing, and for Freiburg has told you the letter is sent.

If it goes wrong. If a referee goes silent, replace them the same day. A Freiburg letter you forward yourself is not recognised, so a referee who cannot email it before 15 October cannot be your referee.

From applicants who did it. The only reference applicants discuss is the employer's: letterhead, signature, stamp, date, not sealed.

The DAAD Portal's own recommendation form. The DAAD Portal has a recommendation form that some DAAD programmes ask for. The EPOS courses take the referee's own letter, not the DAAD Portal's form.

Same as the Commonwealth Master's. The Commonwealth Master's wants "References from at least two individuals, in PDF format, signed and either on institutional letterhead or an email clearly showing the sender's details", uploaded by you by its close. Ask your employer and your lecturer for both at once.

Next. Get your papers out (Stage 5), the same week.

Freiburg's pages and the DAAD Portal's help pages in this chapter were updated on 10 October 2026.

Stage 5. Get your papers out

Back to the short stages

You have asked your employer and your referees. Now get your Nigerian papers out: your transcript, your degree certificate, your WAEC result where a course asks it, your passport and your English evidence. Request the transcript first: applicants say it is the paper that takes longest.

Step 1. Your transcript, with your CGPA and the grading scale

What the DAAD asks. "Copy* of your full set of transcript of records. Please provide an explanation of the grading system if this is not part of the transcript." "* Please check with the requirements of the according University whether certified copies are required." At the application stage the DAAD itself asks no certified copies: "No, not initially. DAAD reserves the right to request certified documents after a positive selection decision has been made."

What the courses add.

• Freiburg: "Your Bachelor´s transcript must contain a final weighted average/CGPA and a grading scale. The grade must be NUMERIC (not alphabetical or qualitative). If your transcript lacks the above, please attach an annex with the missing information (e.g. link to your university´s official grading scale)." Only the bachelor's grade counts there: upload your bachelor's transcript, and your master's transcript too if you hold one, for information.
• Oldenburg and uni-assist: "your official transcript of records (bearing the university's stamp and signed by the registrar)" with "the grading system that is applied for your degree programme and year of graduation", which "must include the classification of degrees with the highest possible mark and the lowest pass mark required for a bachelor's degree to be awarded. This information is often shown on the reverses of transcript of records or in students handbooks/course guides." "Links to anabin or Wikipedia are not enough." Uni-assist: "official certificates are those bearing a signature and stamp from the issuing institution, a reference to their automatic issuance or a verification code."

Do. Request today, from your university's transcript portal, the copy your university releases to you (often marked "Student's Copy"), with every year's marks, your CGPA and the grading scale. If the copy carries no scale, get your university's grading scale on paper (your student handbook or the registry) and attach it.

Where, at five universities:

• University of Lagos, records.unilag.edu.ng, opens in a new tab. An official transcript "CANNOT be issued directly to individuals" and goes only to an institution's registrar or postgraduate dean, a scholarship board or an embassy, or is uploaded to an institution's own link. For your own copy, apply for the Student Copy Transcript on the student portal (studentportal.unilag.edu.ng, "Student Academic Transcript" under Results); it is emailed to you and placed on the portal. Fees: transcript ₦10,000 (extra copies ₦1,000); soft copy by email ₦3,000; soft copy by file upload ₦15,000; "English as a Medium" ₦5,000; postage to Europe ₦5,000 by NIPOST or ₦20,000 by courier. The charges table prints no fee for the student copy. The Senate's notice of June 2023 puts the total for a transcript uploaded to an application portal at ₦25,000. Apply on a computer in Google Chrome, and track your application on the portal. Email only: records@unilag.edu.ng; visiting days Tuesday and Thursday, 10am to 2pm.
• University of Ibadan: undergraduates at academic.ui.edu.ng, postgraduates at apps.pgcollege.ui.edu.ng/transcript/. "Any personal address supplied for processing transcript will be treated as Student's Copy and as such watermarked." The portal's fee sheet prints ₦20,000 to a foreign address, ₦10,000 to a Nigerian address and ₦10,000 for a Student's Copy; two other UI pages print lower figures. Pay what the portal shows. Help line 080 2084 1489, record@stu.ui.edu.ng.
• University of Nigeria, Nsukka: iTranscript, opens in a new tab. ₦12,000 local, ₦25,000 foreign, sent by email by default. It does not take student copy requests: address the request to yourself, and it is delivered to you. Apply with the name on your admission file. Contact unn.itranscript@unn.edu.ng, 08059284511, 08168744236.
• Obafemi Awolowo University: tps.oauife.edu.ng, opens in a new tab, the only place to apply and pay; "Payment of cash to any individual, company or agent is prohibited." Transcripts requested for yourself are marked "Student Copy". Its public pages print no fee and no time. Enquiries transcript@oauife.edu.ng.
• Ahmadu Bello University: transcript.abu.edu.ng, opens in a new tab. Local e-copy ₦5,000, local hard copy ₦15,000, international e-copy ₦5,000, international hard copy ₦50,000. Processing takes 24 to 48 hours for e-copies and 5 to 7 days for hard copies. A personal copy, for your own records, is offered. Contact etranscript@abu.edu.ng, +234 (0) 8068085620 (also WhatsApp), Monday to Saturday, 8am to 6pm.
• Any other university: apply on its own transcript portal and ask for the copy that shows your CGPA and grading scale. Pay only on the portal.

Cost. ₦5,000 to ₦25,000 a transcript at these five universities, more for courier copies. Pay only on the portal: UNILAG warns that "under no condition should applicants make payment to any individual or organisation under the pretext of fast track".

Time. ABU states 24 to 48 hours for an e-copy and 5 to 7 days for a hard copy. UNILAG treats applications "first-come, first-served". The others state no time.

Step 2. Your degree certificate

Do. Scan your degree certificate. If you have finished but your certificate is not out, get your university's letter that you have completed your degree, with your final grade: "If your official degree certificate is not available yet, please provide confirmation from your university." Freiburg asks the certified copy of the certificate "at the latest at enrolment". If you never collected your certificate, collect it now: at UNILAG an uncollected certificate carries ₦10,000 after the year following convocation, plus ₦5,000 for every further year, and a certificate with a spelling error that was your fault is re-issued for ₦35,000.

Translations. Your Nigerian papers are in English, so they need no translation: the DAAD asks a certified translation only "if the original is not in German or English", and uni-assist needs none where the certificate is issued in English.

Step 3. Your WAEC result, where a course asks it

What the courses ask. Your school-leaving certificate is your WAEC or NECO certificate. Uni-assist (Oldenburg) asks "a copy of your school leaving certificate, issued by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) or the National Examinations Council (NECO)" and "a scratch card or the information which it contains (card number and PIN) for verification of your examination results". Freiburg asks your high school certificate as a simple copy when you register in Germany. The visa asks your school results in order (Stage 11).

Do. Scan your WAEC or NECO certificate. For uni-assist, buy a WAEC result checker e-PIN and write down its card number and PIN. WAEC's result checker, WAECDirect, opens in a new tab, takes your 10-digit examination number (your 7-digit centre number and 3-digit candidate number; 8 digits before 1999), the year and the e-PIN; it prints no price for the card. WAEC's Results Verification, opens in a new tab portal lets a holder or a university verify a result online, each PIN valid for one year and five uses, but prints no single-PIN price. If your certificate is lost, WAEC does not replace it: it issues a statement of result, or confirms your result for a fee.

Step 4. Your passport

Do. Have a passport issued in the last 10 years, "valid for at least 6 more months", with "at least two free pages": this is what the visa asks (Stage 11). If you have none, apply now at passport.immigration.gov.ng, opens in a new tab: your NIN slip, a birth certificate or a declaration of age from a high court, your local government or indigene certificate and an ICAO-compliant passport photograph; you then appear at the passport office you chose for your photograph and fingerprints. The 32-page passport for 5 years is ₦100,000, and the 64-page passport for 10 years ₦200,000. A fresh application takes 42 days after enrolment; a re-issue 21 days.

Step 5. Your English evidence

What the DAAD asks. "Recent proof of Language Skills": "IELTS or TOEFL (Note: The institutional TOEFL is not accepted)", but for an English-taught course the course's own rule decides: "The language requirements may differ depending on the course you wish to apply for. Please check the regulations of the respective courses for the needed proof of adequate language skills." Its general rule is that a language certificate "should not be older than 3 years by the time of application".

What each course takes.

• Freiburg: IELTS band 7 on computer or online ("No limit of validity"); TOEFL iBT 95 for a test sat before 2026, or 5 on the scale TOEFL has used since 2026 ("TOEFL certificates cannot be older than 2 years"; TOEFL code 8692, department code 99); Cambridge C1 or PTE Academic 76 (no limit of validity). Its scholarship page exempts applicants who followed their entire university studies in English "in a country where English is the official language", and Nigeria's official language is English; its application form says the medium-of-instruction box "can be recognized only in some cases". The stricter line governs this window: hold a test certificate, or a test booking. Certificates by 15 October, or proof of a test booked on or before 15 October with the result by 31 October.
• Heidelberg: B2, "Only original score reports from authorised test centres are accepted!", or your tertiary study in English, with your transcripts and "an official letter from the institution to certify that English was the sole or principal language of instruction".
• Oldenburg: TOEFL iBT, IELTS, Cambridge, PTE Academic, TOEIC, telc or UNIcert at B2, not expired, or "If the medium of instruction at your college was 100% English, you can simply hand in a confirmation of this as a substitute". Last year's brochure listed "TOEFL (81 iBT) or IELTS academic (Band 6.0)" for SuRE; this window Oldenburg's own FAQ asks B2.
• TU Berlin: a test is required even from a country where English is the official language: TOEFL iBT 79 (before January 2026) or 4.5 (after), or IELTS 6.

Do.

1. For Heidelberg and Oldenburg, get your university's letter that your degree was taught in English. At UNILAG it is "English as a Medium", ₦5,000, and "can be sent to any address (physical or electronic) or collect by hand"; UNN offers "Proof of English Proficiency" at a charge its page does not print.
2. For Freiburg, in this window: book IELTS or TOEFL today for a date on or before 15 October, send the booking proof with your file, and send the result by 31 October. Tick the medium-of-instruction box on its form and put your university's English letter in your file as well. For the next window, settle it in writing months ahead (Stage C4).
3. For TU Berlin, or if a course will not take the letter, sit IELTS Academic or TOEFL iBT.

The tests in Nigeria. IELTS Academic on computer at an IDP test centre: ₦299,000. TOEFL iBT: $170 (about ₦226,610), paid in your ETS account by card, e-check, PayPal or Alipay; express registration within 7 days of the test date $49 more (about ₦65,317); scores in your ETS account "3 days after your test date", valid for 2 years. IELTS on computer gives its result in 1 to 5 days. The UK's approved list of test centres names IELTS centres in Abuja (British Council and IDP), Benin City, Lagos (Yaba, Ikoyi, Victoria Island, Ikeja GRA, Gbagada) and Port Harcourt. From the North Central, the nearest centres on the list are in Abuja.

Paying in euros or dollars from Nigeria. TOEFL takes card, e-check, PayPal or Alipay in your ETS account. Uni-assist (Stage 7) takes "3D Secure Credit card (Visa or MasterCard)" or a bank transfer, and warns: "Sometimes banks may not accept payments with credit cards or bank transfers from certain countries for security reasons." Before you pay, ask your bank whether your naira card pays online in dollars and euros, and what its foreign spending limit is: no official page can answer that for your card.

Step 6. Your name, the same on every paper

Do. Check that your name and date of birth read the same on your passport, your transcript, your degree certificate, your WAEC certificate, your work certificates and your birth certificate. The DAAD Portal: "Please make sure the spelling of your name and surname is identical with the spelling in your identification documents." The DAAD form asks your names "as stated in your passport". Fix a difference now:

• UNN: "apply for your transcript with the name used to process your admission"; a different name "will greatly delay the processing".
• A change of name on your passport after marriage, or the correction of an error, is applied for online with the Nigeria Immigration Service; the correction of data charge is ₦30,000.
• For the visa, an affidavit from a court explains a changed name or a mistake on a paper: "Affidavit of Change of Names (with the published newspaper advertisment), Affidavit of Reconciliation of Names", with a copy of the signer's ID (Stage 11).

Certified copies. At the application stage you send scans. After selection, the DAAD can ask for certified copies, and Freiburg and other universities want originals or certified copies when you enrol. The German missions in Nigeria certify copies free "as part of an application to study in Germany", by appointment in Abuja or Lagos, and make the copies themselves: "It is not necessary to bring your own copies." Do not go to the mission for a legalisation of your Nigerian papers: Germany stopped legalising them in May 2000, and only a German authority can ask the mission to verify a Nigerian paper.

You are done when you hold, scanned clearly: your transcript with your CGPA and the grading scale, your degree certificate or your completion letter, your WAEC certificate, your passport's photo page and your English evidence for each course; and your name reads the same on all of them.

If it goes wrong. If your transcript will not come by 14 October, you cannot send a complete file this window: Freiburg, Heidelberg and the DAAD take no incomplete file. Keep it coming, and go to Part 8. If your transcript shows no CGPA, attach your university's grading scale and a line giving your CGPA from your statement of result.

From applicants who did it. A graduate wrote online in 2025 that a Nigerian university had still not sent a transcript applied for more than eight months earlier, and in October 2026 another had waited three months with no reply. In 2026 an applicant got hers only as a PDF and did not know how to send it on. Applicants who had their papers certified for study at the German mission in 2025 and 2026 say it cost nothing. Applicants in 2026 posted that a Nigerian needs an APS certificate: that is wrong; the APS exists only in China, Vietnam and India.

On uni-assist. Uni-assist asks the transcript "bearing the university's stamp and signed by the registrar", your WAEC or NECO certificate with the scratch card details, and each paper uploaded "only once, even if you wish to apply to multiple universities".

On a German-taught course. Get your B1 German certificate now. The DAAD's checklist asks it "not older than one year". In Nigeria the missions take only Goethe-Institut or ÖSD certificates for a German exam sat in Nigeria. ÖSD's centre in Lagos is Easyway Language School, Unity Road, Ikeja (info@easywaylanguageschool.com, +234 708 900 2534), which lists its next B1 exam (ZB1) on 31 October 2026; ÖSD prints no fee: "Examinees pay the fee directly to the centre."

Same as Chevening and the Commonwealth Master's. The transcript and the passport you get out now serve all three. The Commonwealth Master's wants every page of every transcript, uploaded by you; Chevening asks your degree certificate only if you are invited to interview. An IELTS or TOEFL result you sit for EPOS is not needed for either.

Next. Write your CV and your letter of motivation (Stage 6), while the transcript is coming.

The universities' portals, WAEC's and the Nigeria Immigration Service's pages in this chapter were updated on 10 October 2026; the courses', uni-assist's and the missions' pages on 10 October 2026; IDP's on 7 October 2026.

Stage 6. Write your CV and your letter of motivation

Back to the short stages

Your papers are coming. Now write the two pieces that carry your case: your CV and your letter of motivation. Gather your examples first, then write.

Step 1. Gather your examples

Do. In one notebook, write down, each with its dates and what changed because of it:

1. Your degree: your subject, your class, your CGPA, your project.
2. Each job since your degree: your employer, your position, your exact dates, your main tasks, and one result you can name, with a figure where you have one.
3. The development problem you work on: what it is in Nigeria, who it touches, and what you will do about it after the course, in your old job or a better one.
4. Each course you chose: the modules and the thesis topic you want, and how they answer that problem.
5. Why your first choice is first, your second second, and your third third.
6. Any gap of more than three months since school, and what you did in it.

Applicants who were interviewed say the panel asked "why Germany? and some questions from your LOM and CV". Your notebook is what you answer from.

Step 2. Write your CV

What the DAAD asks. "A curriculum vitae in reverse chronological order without any unexplained gaps (please use the europass template including exact information about your studies, and on practical experience". The checklist: "format: EUROPASS", "full CV without any unexplained gaps", "in reverse chronological order", "incl. the date of issue". Freiburg: "CV format EUROPASS (mandatory), full CV without any unexplained gaps (explain all gaps longer than 3 months), in reverse chronological order, incl. the date of issue". TU Berlin: "the EUROPASS format & EPOS Checklist (DAAD) are mandatory!"

Do.

1. Make your CV on the EU's Europass site (europass.cedefop.europa.eu, which the DAAD links), newest first.
2. Give each job its exact start and end dates, the same as on your work certificates, and each degree its dates and final result.
3. Write a line for every gap of more than three months.
4. Date it at the top or the bottom ("date of issue").
5. No DAAD page asks you to sign the CV, and no page names a DAAD CV form: the Europass template is the one form.

Step 3. Write your letter of motivation

What the DAAD asks. "One letter of motivation with detailed reference to academic, professional, and personal reasons for applying to the programme". The checklist sets out what it covers: "This must include a convincing explanation of your academic, professional and personal reasons for applying to this course in Germany." For more than one course: "Please rank the courses in order of preference, i.e. why is your first choice of course your first choice, why is your second choice your second choice and so on. For each choice of course please provide clear reasons why you think it will advance you academically and professionally. You must provide the same letter of motivation to all courses you are applying for." "Please describe any professional experience relevant to the course(s)." "Please address how your motivation relates to the goals of the EPOS Programme." At most 2 pages, dated.

One letter, identical, to every course. "you have to submit one identical motivation letter to each course explaining why you are applying for these specific courses and why you chose that priority. If this information is ignored, the application cannot be" taken, "or an already awarded scholarship" can be withdrawn.

What the courses add.

• Freiburg asks two letters if you apply to more than one EPOS course. First, its own letter, "following this MEG_DAAD Guideline". "It should convince both the MEG programme committee AND the DAAD-EPOS committee." Answer, "in the order they are listed below. Otherwise, your application cannot be" taken:

  1. "Personal Understanding of Environmental Governance (1 sentence)"
  2. "Your motivation to apply in relation to your previous education and work experience"
  3. "What impact do you think the MEG programme and DAAD scholarship" will have "on your future professional life?"
  4. "What are the most important elements of the MEG programme for you personally?"
  5. "In what ways could the MEG programme and the DAAD scholarship help you to contribute to the sustainable development of your country?"
  6. The signed sentence: "With the signature below I confirm that I have written the motivation letter by myself, without outside help and that I marked clearly all contents taken from other sources."

  At most two pages, with its date. Second, "If you are applying - apart from MEG - to other Master programmes of the DAAD-EPOS programme, you have to write a SECOND motivation letter in which you explain why you are applying for these specific programmes and why you have chosen the order of priority. You must provide the exactly same letter of motivation to all programmes you are applying for." "Without this letter, DAAD will exclude you from the application process."

• Oldenburg: "Letter of Motivation addressing the selection criteria and with current date (max. 2 pages, including research interest/proposal)". "as an applicant for the DAAD EPOS scholarship, the required letter of motivation by DAAD and by University of Oldenburg are the same. Hence, you only need to submit one letter of motivation".

How the letter counts at Freiburg. It is graded from 1 to 5 on a convincing account of your study interests, a clear structure, correct form and correct spelling. A grade from 1.0 to 1.5 improves your ranking grade by 0.5; to 2.0, by 0.3; to 2.5, by 0.2; to 3.0, by 0.1. It weighs more than either reference.

Do.

1. Write the priority letter first: your three courses in order, and for each, from your notebook, the modules, what they add to your work, and why it sits where it does in your order. Tie each to the development problem you work on and to EPOS's goal of specialists who return to drive change at home.
2. For Freiburg, write its guideline letter, answering its five questions in its order, and sign its sentence.
3. Keep each letter to two pages, date it, print it, sign it with a pen, and scan it.
4. Read each one aloud as your answer to "why this course, why Germany, and what after": applicants say the interview is built on it.
5. Write every word yourself. Freiburg's signed sentence says you wrote it "without outside help", and the DAAD Portal asks you to accept a "Self-declaration for the use of artificial intelligence" before you upload.

Where. The DAAD's checklist, opens in a new tab; Freiburg's guideline for the letter of motivation, opens in a new tab.

Cost and time. Free. A week of evenings.

You are done when your Europass CV is dated and has no unexplained gap, your priority letter is signed, dated, at most two pages and the same for every course, and for Freiburg its guideline letter is signed and dated too.

If it goes wrong. If your CV and your letter disagree on a date or a job, fix it before you send: the DAAD wants the form, the CV and the letter to match, and its form warns that "false statements in the application can lead to the annulment of the application or the revocation of a scholarship that has already been awarded."

From applicants who did it. In 2026 applicants posted their letters online and asked strangers to review them; one DAAD scholar offered help in private messages. A paid market sells "DAAD application reviews" and invites Nigerians into WhatsApp "scholarship groups"; no DAAD page names a fee or an agent for EPOS. An applicant to three courses wrote online in 2025 of sending one letter to all three, explaining the choice; the DAAD and Freiburg ask one identical letter for all your EPOS courses.

Same as Chevening and the Commonwealth Master's. The same notebook feeds Chevening's essays and the Commonwealth Master's answers. Write each funder's answers to its own questions; keep the dates and jobs identical in all of them.

Next. Fill and sign the DAAD's forms, and send your file to each course (Stage 7).

The DAAD's checklist and FAQ, Freiburg's, Heidelberg's and Oldenburg's pages in this chapter were updated on 10 October 2026.

Stage 7. Fill and sign the DAAD's forms, and send your file to each course

Back to the short stages

Your papers and your letters are ready. Now fill the DAAD's two forms, sign them with a pen, and send a complete file to each course, as each course asks, by the end of 14 October.

Step 1. Fill the DAAD application form

Do. Download the DAAD EPOS application form, opens in a new tab (a Word file) and fill it:

• your surname and first names "as stated in your passport"; your email; your date and place of birth; your country of permanent residence; your nationality; your gender; your marital status; the number of your children; your contact address "until taking up a possible DAAD scholarship";
• your home university and town, your subjects, your degrees held with their date and "final result", and any degree you expect, with its date;
• any previous study abroad;
• whether you are applying, or have recently applied, for another DAAD or non-DAAD scholarship, and any decision;
• your first, second and third choice of course, in your fixed order;
• your languages, as very good, good, average or poor;
• "Relevant practical experience after Bachelor degree": from and to, location, type of work, position, full-time or part-time;
• your current job, and "What professional career do you envisage";
• the consent to data processing; the date and place; your signature.

Print it, sign it with a pen, add the date, and scan it. Freiburg: "don't forget date of issue". Everything on it must match your CV and your letters.

Step 2. Sign the checklist

Do. Download the EPOS checklist, opens in a new tab ("ST42 - EPOS-Checklist - 07/2023"), tick each paper, and sign at its foot: "Location, Date Name (in capital letters) and original signature (no inserted scan)", under "This signature confirms that all information provided in my application is correct, up-to-date and complete." Freiburg: "Signed DAAD checklist ... printed out and signed with a pen and then be scanned again (a digital signature cannot be accepted)".

Step 3. Put your file in the DAAD's order

The DAAD's order: "Completed and signed checklist"; the DAAD application form; your CV; your letter of motivation; your current employer's letter of recommendation; your work certificates; your English evidence; copies of your degree certificates; your full transcript, with the grading system. "the University you are applying for may require additional documents", and each course below sets its own order.

Step 4. Send it to each course

Freiburg (MEG): one PDF, by email. "All documents listed below, under Application Documents, need to be compressed or merged as one single PDF file and then be sent to info-meg@unr.uni-freiburg.de". Its online form is closed "due to technical issues" and will not reopen: "please fill in this form and send your documents as a single PDF". Merge in this order: "MEG application form, DAAD application form, Motivation letter, CV, Academic Transcript, Degree Certificate, Proof of 2 years work experience, English language certificate (if applicable), APS (if applicable), DAAD Checklist". The MEG form ("Application for Winter Semester 2027/28, application deadline 15 October 2026, only for students from developing countries that apply for a DAAD-MEG scholarship") asks your previous studies (subjects, institution and country, from and to, degree, final grade) and, on page 2, your referees. "If you submit the documents listed below, there is no need to submit additional documents required in the DAAD application form (e.g. project outline)." Your two referees email their own letters separately (Stage 4).

Heidelberg (MScIH): its web form. Its scholarships page asks you to "read the information below and information in the form carefully, and apply here for the DAAD-EPOS Scholarship". Its how-to-apply page: "The application portal is currently being updated. Further information on the DAAD EPOS scholarship application and the MScIH application process will be announced soon." Name and send each file as the form asks.

Oldenburg (SuRE): uni-assist. "All applications must be submitted via the application portal (uni-assist)". "As applicants for the DAAD sponsored study spots, you must upload all documents required by University of Oldenburg and DAAD on uni-assist. If any form is missing, you will be disqualified." "Do you I need to upload separate documents for SuRE and DAAD? No, you don't." PDFs only. See "On uni-assist" below for the fee and how to pay.

A course that takes email (TU Berlin's Urban Management, for the next window). "Applications can be sent via email only... Please scan your documentation to PDF and include your name in all filenames. Please do not exceed max. 20 MB for all attachments", to urbanmanagement@contact.tu-berlin.de, named "1_UM_APPLICATION_Lastname_Firstname, 2_DAAD_APPLICATION, 3_DAAD_CHECKLIST, 4_MOTIVATION, 5_EUROPASS_CV, 6_DIPLOMA, 7_TRANSCRIPT, 8_WORKCERTIFICATE, 9_REC_PROFESSIONAL, 10_ENGLISHTEST, 11_PASSPORT". "You do NOT need an admission letter from TU Berlin to apply".

Keep a PDF of every paper. "Keep a copy of each document of your application ready, as those documents (as PDF files) have to be uploaded to the DAAD Portal" if the course puts you forward. (Stage 9).

What you need. Your signed DAAD form and checklist, your CV, your letters, your employer's papers, your transcript and grading scale, your degree certificate, your English evidence, your WAEC certificate and your passport page, all scanned. A computer with Word, a printer and a scanner, or a business centre that has them. Your phone can scan a page, but the form is a Word file and Freiburg wants one PDF.

Cost. Freiburg's pages name no application fee. Heidelberg: "There is no application fee." Uni-assist: EUR 75 (about ₦112,275) for the first course you choose there in a semester, EUR 30 (about ₦44,910) for each more.

Time. By 15 October 2026 for Freiburg, Heidelberg and Oldenburg; no page states the hour. Send by the end of 14 October.

You are done when each course has your complete file: Freiburg's sent email with one PDF and your referees' letters sent; Heidelberg's web form sent; Oldenburg's file submitted and paid in your uni-assist account.

If it goes wrong. If a course's email bounces or its form fails, write to its contact the same day, with your file attached. Never send your EPOS file to the DAAD: "Applications sent to the DAAD will not be forwarded to the respective course/university."

From applicants who did it. Applicants say each of their courses wanted the file sent differently, and that they filled the DAAD form "in three places", once for each course. The courses in this guide take email, their own form or uni-assist. The DAAD's form needs your signature in ink.

On uni-assist. Make your account in My assist, choose the course, upload each paper once, and pay. "Upload all of your documents into your My assist account within the application deadline." So the deadline is the course's: your file must be submitted complete and paid in My assist by 15 October. The 8 weeks is uni-assist's advice ("Apply as early as possible, ideally at least 8 weeks before the deadline"), so that it can check your papers and tell you of a gap in time. It usually evaluates "in 4 to 6 weeks", and papers from "Africa, Middle East and Iran" in "1-2 weeks" (last updated 12 October 2026), so a file sent this week is checked after the close, and a paper missing then cannot be added in time. For Oldenburg in this window, send only a file you are sure is complete. The fee: EUR 75 for the first course and EUR 30 for each more in a semester ("You cannot reclaim the handling fee if your application is unsuccessful"); Oldenburg: "it is not possible to make exceptions regarding the processing fee." Pay by "3D Secure Credit card (Visa or MasterCard)", or by bank transfer to "your personal IBAN", with your applicant number, name and date of birth, telling your bank "you want to use the OUR transfer" (ask your bank what the OUR transfer is and what it costs you); "Friends or relatives with a German bank account can transfer the handling fees for you." "uni-assist e.V. does not cooperate with commercial agencies in Germany or abroad that place applicants at German universities. ... Payment requests related to the application process are issued exclusively by uni-assist and are processed only through the uni-assist online portal."

On a German-taught course. Send your B1 German certificate with your file, in place of an English certificate.

Same as Chevening and the Commonwealth Master's. The Commonwealth Master's form goes on CSC Central by 4pm in Lagos on 20 October 2026, five days after the EPOS close. Declare it on your DAAD form as a scholarship you have applied for.

Next. The course's selection (Stage 8), from the day after you send.

The DAAD's form, checklist and FAQ, the courses' pages and uni-assist's pages in this chapter were updated on 10 October 2026.

Stage 8. The course's selection: the shortlist and the interview

Back to the short stages

You have sent your file. Now the course chooses. It reads your file, shortlists, interviews, and puts forward its candidates to the DAAD. Prepare for the interview from the day you send.

What happens now. The DAAD's four steps: first, you send your complete application to the course; second, the course's selection committee puts forward candidates for DAAD scholarships; third, the DAAD contacts those candidates "to upload their complete application to the DAAD Portal"; fourth, "The selection process will be finalized", and the candidates are told. Last year's brochure: "the selection process for all postgraduate courses listed in this booklet runs from the end of October to March". The DAAD gives no status while you wait: it gives no information on the status of applications, and "You will be informed by the according course that you applied for. The majority of the selection process will be finished in March."

When each course writes.

• Freiburg: "Candidates will be selected first by the programme committee of the MEG programme." Then the DAAD checks the course's choice "carefully" and decides on the candidates. "You will be notified in February about the first results of the selection process. If you are nominated for the short-list an interview will follow. Only after the interview, the selection of scholarship candidates will be finalised." No date for the interview or the final result.
• Heidelberg: "Candidates will be informed about the outcome of their application by February. Although the Institute of Global Health can nominate candidates for scholarships, the final decision lies with the DAAD."
• Oldenburg: "If you applied for a DAAD scholarship (deadline 15 October) you will know by the end of January".

The interview. The DAAD's FAQ: "If you are shortlisted there will be a telephone-interview with the university staff. This interview may only be conducted by the applicant." No one sits it for you. Applicants describe online interviews (From applicants who did it, below), and at Freiburg the interview follows its February results.

Do.

1. Watch your email every day, spam included, from the day after you send.
2. Prepare your interview from your letter and your CV: why this course, why Germany and not elsewhere, what you will do in five years, your projects and how they fit, your plans after the course, and whether you will return home.
3. When an invitation comes, answer the same day, and test your phone or your internet the day before.
4. Keep every paper ready as a PDF for the DAAD Portal (Stage 9).

Cost. Free.

Time. Results from the end of January (Oldenburg) to February (Freiburg, Heidelberg), the interview in between or after; the DAAD's selection runs to March.

You are done when the course tells you that it has put you forward to the DAAD, or that it has not.

If it goes wrong. If you hear nothing by the end of February, write to your course: Freiburg info-meg@unr.uni-freiburg.de; Heidelberg msc_ih@uni-heidelberg.de; Oldenburg through its application page. The DAAD gives no status. If the course turns you down for the scholarship but offers you a self-funded place, that is a different route: you pay your own tuition and living costs, show a blocked account for the visa, and wait in the regular visa queue (Stage 10).

From applicants who did it. Applicants describe interviews of twenty minutes to an hour, online, and friendly. The questions they report: two or three checks from the CV; how they heard of the course; why this course; why Germany and not the USA or the UK; where they will be in five years; their projects and how they fit; their plans after graduating; and whether they will return: "the professor explicitly asked me if I would return". They report interviews from about two months after applying: Heidelberg's from late December to February in 2025 and 2026, others in October, December or February. Heidelberg told one applicant on 13 June 2025 that she had won, and rejected others on 9 and 10 April 2025. One Kenyan applicant believed "If they send u interview you are already selected"; applicants were rejected after interview, so prepare it as the selection it is.

Same as Chevening and the Commonwealth Master's. Chevening's interview and the Commonwealth Master's selection run on their own dates. Give every funder the same dates and the same plans.

Next. Upload your file to the DAAD Portal when the DAAD writes (Stage 9).

The DAAD's entry, FAQ and brochure and the courses' pages in this chapter were updated on 10 October 2026.

Stage 9. Upload your file to the DAAD Portal when the DAAD writes

Back to the short stages

Your course has put you forward. Now the DAAD writes and asks you to upload your file to the DAAD Portal. Do it the day the email comes.

Do.

1. Get your DAAD-ID. On the DAAD Portal, opens in a new tab, register: "Registration and the DAAD ID are free of charge... Please do not use any third-party services to carry out your registration for a fee. The DAAD does not support such services." Use a desktop computer: the portal "is not optimised for use on mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets". Use Chrome, Firefox, Safari or Edge, with pop-ups for daad.de allowed. The verification code comes by email, from "Microsoft on behalf of Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst e.V. (DAAD)", and "The code is valid for five minutes." Spell your name exactly as on your passport. "Please note that you will not be able to change this email address afterwards."
2. Read and accept "the Application conditions and the Self-declaration for the use of artificial intelligence" before you enter your details.
3. Upload the same file you sent the course. "You can only upload PDF files to the DAAD Portal." Remove any password or comment lock from each PDF: "If you have trouble removing the restrictions, print the file and scan it into PDF-format". Each upload has its own limit, for example "You may upload 3 documents each with a maximum file size of 3MB".
4. Send it quickly. "Drafts are stored in the DAAD Portal for 14 days. If you do not make any changes to your draft within this timeframe, it will be automatically deleted." "If the application deadline has passed, the green button will turn red."
5. Check the three messages. After "Send application" you get a confirmation, a second message with "a collection of the submitted documents", and "a third message containing your application summary within the next 24 hours". "An email will inform you about each portal message."
6. Watch the status. "A subsequent submission of attachments is not possible if your application status is already set to Selection made or Application rejected." Applicants say the status changed to "Selection Made" with no email: open the portal every few days.

Where. The DAAD Portal, opens in a new tab. Technical help: portal@daad.de, or +49 228 882 8888 on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 12 noon and 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. German time. Questions on the forms or the procedure: the DAAD's contact form at www.daad.de/en/the-daad/contact/contact-study-research-in-germany.

What you need. A desktop computer, an email you check every day, and every paper as an unlocked PDF.

Cost and time. Free. One sitting, the day the DAAD writes.

You are done when you hold the three portal messages, and the status reads your result.

If it goes wrong. If the code expires, ask for a new one; it lasts five minutes. If a PDF will not upload, print it and scan it again. If the portal shows a problem, write to portal@daad.de with your DAAD-ID. A DAAD officer can ask you for a further paper. Answer within the time the message gives.

From applicants who did it. Applicants asked whether a file uploaded to the portal can still be rejected; the reply they got was "It only depends on your documents." Applicants say "Selection Made" appeared on the portal without an email, and that the DAAD's messages arrive on the portal, not only by email.

Next. Your result (Stage 10).

The DAAD Portal's help pages and the DAAD's entry in this chapter were updated on 10 October 2026.

Stage 10. Your result, and what you do next

Back to the short stages

The DAAD has decided. Now act on the result the same week.

If you are selected: the Letter of Award

Do.

1. Read your Letter of Award. "Once you have received your Letter of Award, you will receive an email informing you about a new message in the portal. This message includes your Declaration of Acceptance." Its subject reads "Stipendienzusage/Letter of Award". Read every condition: the start date, the German course, the months of funding.
2. Return the Declaration of Acceptance. "Once you have been accepted for a scholarship, you must submit the Declaration of Acceptance." Download it, sign it, and upload it with "Submit Declaration of Acceptance", then "Send documents". A portal message "officially confirms the submission". The page states no time limit: return it the week the letter comes.
3. Get your admission from the course. "Admission to the university is a prerequisite for receiving a DAAD scholarship." Your visa needs a "current" admission letter "stating, the course, the starting date and the language of instruction" (Stage 11). At Freiburg, "The applications for the MEG programme and for the scholarship are linked", so the course's admission follows from the same file. Heidelberg's and Oldenburg's pages do not say how their admission letter comes after the award. The week the award comes, write to the course: "I have been awarded a DAAD-EPOS scholarship for your course. When will you send my admission letter?" Book your visa appointment for a day after the letter is in your hands: the missions take every paper at the appointment and none after it.
4. Ask your course about tuition before you accept. The DAAD does not pay tuition: "Even as a scholarship holder, you should therefore ask your chosen host university whether tuition fees are charged for your programme." Freiburg charges a DAAD-EPOS scholar no study fee. At Heidelberg (EUR 14,100) and Oldenburg (EUR 1,500 a semester), no page says what a DAAD scholar pays. If the course has not answered your Stage 2 email in writing, write to it now: "I have been awarded a DAAD-EPOS scholarship for your course. What tuition fee, if any, will I pay?" Keep the reply. If you pay, the missions ask proof of the first year's payment for your visa (Stage 11); if you do not, the course's letter goes into your visa file in its place. The DAAD's FAQ: "You do not pay for the tuiton fees, but there may be registration or enrollment fees you have to pay. Please contact the university."
5. Declare your health. The DAAD's insurance does not cover these conditions existing before you start: "HIV, multiple sclerosis, haemophilia (haemophilia), malignant tumour (cancer) including leukaemia and chronic kidney disease", nor "childbirths within 8 months of the start of insurance cover". "If you have one of these pre-existing conditions or are pregnant, please contact your DAAD contact person directly." The DAAD funds you only if your insurance covers such a condition, and the same holds for a pregnancy: "You cannot start your stay in Germany without adequate health insurance." The DAAD's insurance office: versicherungsstelle@daad.de, (+49) 228/882-8770.
6. Tell the DAAD about any other scholarship the day you get one: "Please notify the DAAD immediately, should you be granted another scholarship."
7. Apply for your visa the same week (Stage 11): it must be granted before your German course starts, months before the semester.

You are done when the portal confirms your Declaration of Acceptance, you hold your admission letter, and your course has told you in writing what you pay.

If you are not selected

Do.

1. Read any self-funded offer for what it is. Oldenburg: "If you were not chosen as a DAAD applicant, you will be notified." You can then be taken as a self-financing applicant on SuRE "by sending a financial statement." Applicants who were offered a self-funded place say it is not the scholarship: you pay the course's tuition (EUR 1,500 a semester at Oldenburg) and your living costs, and you show EUR 11,904 (about ₦17.8 million) for a year in a blocked account for the visa, in the regular visa queue.
2. Keep your work. Your notebook, your letters, your employer's papers and your transcript serve the next window (Part 8). Ask your employer for fresh dated letters then.
3. Apply again. Applicants have applied two and three years running: one applied three years to the same three courses, and in the third TU Berlin asked for corrections; one rejected for the scholarship but admitted, with "low cgpa but almost 4 years of relevant experience", applied again.

From applicants who did it. Reserve lists: at Hohenheim in 2025 applicants waited on a reserve list for about three months, then were offered self-funded places. A Nigerian applicant to International Media Studies in Bonn, a course not on this year's EPOS list, got a self-funded place in 2026 and named his two problems: "Raising the money uo to 12,153 euro" and "Visa processing in Nigeria takes several months."

Next. Your visa (Stage 11), the week your Letter of Award comes.

The DAAD Portal's help pages and the DAAD's applicant pages in this chapter were updated on 10 October 2026.

Stage 11. Your visa

Back to the short stages

You hold your Letter of Award and your admission. Now apply for your national visa for study, the same week. Your visa must be granted before your German course starts in Germany, on the date your Letter of Award gives: last year's brochure gave Freiburg's and Heidelberg's DAAD scholars 2 months, so they travelled about two months before the master's began.

Step 1. Find your mission and your category

Which mission. "As a rule, the German Consulate General in Lagos is responsible for all visa applications." The Embassy in Abuja takes a long-stay visa from "Scholarship holders whose scholarship is paid from public funds" who live in one of these states: FCT, Niger, Kwara, Kogi, Nassarawa, Benue, Taraba, Plateau, Adamawa, Gombe, Bauchi, Kaduna, Zamfara, Kebbi, Sokoto, Katsina, Kano, Jigawa, Yobe or Borno. "In all other cases, the Consulate General in Lagos is responsible for your visa application." If you live in a state not on that list, such as Edo, Delta, Rivers or any South-West state, your mission is the Consulate General in Lagos. The Federal Foreign Office funds the DAAD from the federal budget, and the visa category below names a scholarship "financed from German public funds".

Your category. On the online form, choose "Study, Specific qualifications": the missions put in it anyone "Holding a scholarship financed from German public funds or European supported funds for a study or a PhD in Germany". Everyone else applies under "Study Regular".

Step 2. Apply online

Do, in Lagos.

1. Make your account on the Consular Services Portal, opens in a new tab ("APPLY ONLINE NOW"), choose Studying, and the category "Study, Specific qualifications".
2. Fill the form and upload your papers (Step 3). "Your details and documents will then be checked for completeness. You will receive feedback as to whether your documents are complete and have been submitted successfully."
3. "You will then receive the link to book an appointment at the visa section." The Consulate General "operates with the service provider VFS to take in applications for study purposes". "At this appointment, your identity and original documents will be checked, a short interview will be conducted, your biometric data (fingerprints and photo) will be recorded and the fee will be paid."
4. Do not register on Lagos's paper appointment system for study: its national-visa categories are au pair, voluntary service, internships and re-entry, and skilled workers with advance approval, and "Applicants who book appointments under the wrong visa category will not be attended to and must re-register."

Do, in Abuja (if you live in one of the states above).

1. Ask the Embassy first whether you also fill the form on the Consular Services Portal. No page says whether a scholarship holder in the Abuja states fills the portal form under "Study, Specific qualifications" before the email, or applies by email only. The Embassy's own line: "If in doubt, please contact the Embassy or Consulate General before booking an appointment." Ask it in the email below. Send it the week your Letter of Award comes. If the Embassy says you fill the portal form, fill it under "Study, Specific qualifications" with the papers in Step 3 and wait for its completeness check before the appointment. If it says email only, bring the full sorted file to the appointment it gives you.
2. Email the Embassy. "If you meet the requirements listed above, you can send an email to the embassy requesting a visa interview. Use the following email address: visa@abuj.diplo.de". Put in the email your name, your reason for travel (study on a DAAD scholarship, with your course and its start date) and why the Embassy is yours (a public-funds scholarship holder living in your state): "incomplete requests cannot be" taken. "Visa appointments at the German Embassy in Abuja are very limited. Therefore, make an appointment request in time as soon as you know your travel plans." Each person travelling needs an appointment of their own.
3. The appointment. Appear in person with your full file in the missions' order (Step 3), every original with one set of copies; the missions' steps are the interview, the fee (none for you) and the decision. The Embassy is at 9, Lake Maracaibo Close, off Amazon Street, Maitama, Abuja; Monday to Thursday 8:30 to 15:30, Friday 8:30 to 12:30, "Prior appointment is always required!"; +234 (0) 915-451-74-01/02/03/04. "If in doubt, please contact the Embassy or Consulate General before booking an appointment."

Do not apply at the other mission. The Consular Services Portal does not change which mission is responsible for you: "Please therefore do not attempt to apply online at a different mission abroad if the application you want to submit is not yet available online at the mission responsible for you."

Booking is free. "Booking an appointment is FREE OF CHARGE." "Agencies and other facilitators do not have any special or preferential access to the appointment booking system, even if they claim otherwise. Offers which advertise this are not trustworthy". "The Consulate General does not collaborate with any agents, agencies, or intermediaries for the booking of appointments." To cancel, do it "up to 1-2 days beforehand, but not on the day of the appointment or afterwards."

Step 3. Your file, in the missions' order

How it is presented. "All documents must be submitted in both copy and original form." "Sort your application according to this list." "The required documents must be submitted in full at the personal interview." Papers sent in advance are not taken. "Do not staple any of the documents." "Copies need to be in DIN A4 format and black/white. Copies in color will not be accepted." "Incomplete and unsorted applications will not be accepted." The Consulate General can ask for more.

The list, from the missions' University studies page:

1. The application form, completely filled in English or German, "signed by applicant ... with place and date"; the "Declaration pursuant to section 54 AufenthG" and the "General Data Protection Regulation" sheet, each signed with place and date.
2. Your passport: "original passport + copy of data page", "issued in the last 10 years", "valid for at least 6 more months", "at least two free pages".
3. Your admission letter: "Admission Letter (current) from a German University, stating, the course, the starting date and the language of instruction".
4. Proof of tuition paid, "if applicable": "Proof of payment for the first year of study." If your course has told you that you pay no tuition, carry its letter.
5. Proof of money: your Letter of Award (Step 4).
6. Your CV: "specification of certificates, diplomas, and qualifications obtained; professional training; work experience".
7. A letter of motivation for the visa: "signed by the applicant; detailed expectations regarding the planned stay; anticipated career and personal benefits, as well as future plans". This is a letter for the visa officer; write it from your EPOS letter, and sign it.
8. Proof of work experience: "Any documents that prove you have already worked, such as: work contracts, employer statements, salary slips". Your work certificates and employer's letter (Stage 3).
9. A language certificate, "if applicable": the missions accept certificates "issued by any institution testing in accordance with the standards of the Association of Language Testers in Europe (ALTE)", not older than one year; ALTE is the European body whose standards the missions name. For an English-taught course, the law asks language proof only where your university did not check it at admission; carry the English evidence your course accepted.
10. Your birth certificate. Born on or after 15 December 1992: your "NPC birth certificate, issued from the NPC of your place of birth". Born before, or with no NPC certificate: a certified copy of the local birth register extract, a "Declaration of Age" affidavit from one parent (or the head of the family, at least 10 years older than you), and a copy of that person's ID showing the signature.
11. Your marriage certificate, if married, "issued by the official registrar".
12. Affidavits, if you changed your name or a paper carries a mistake: "Affidavit of Change of Names (with the published newspaper advertisment), Affidavit of Reconciliation of Names, Affidavit of Spinster- / Bachelorhood, Affidavit of Facts", "issued by the competent court", with a copy of the signer's ID.
13. Other old papers that prove who you are: "hospital birth registration, weighing card, baptism certificate, voter ID card, vaccination certificate, other expired passports".
14. Your school results in order: "Primary, Secondary school, WAEC or National diploma, Bachelor Degree, Masters Degree".
15. Your transcripts "of previous and current studies".
16. Every original, in the same order: "Your original documents will be returned to you once your application has been processed."
17. Photographs: the web page asks "2 x biometric photograph: not older than 6 months, uniform white background, size: 3,5x4,5 cm, not glued or stapled to the application form"; the printable list (June 2026) asks one. Bring two.
18. A prepaid courier envelope "from any major courier service, addressed to yourself".

Forged papers. "any visa application submitted with forged documents or documents containing false information will be immediately and automatically rejected. The applicant will be entered into a warning database, which will also negatively affect any subsequent visa applications. And the applicant will be issued a Schengen-wide entry ban."

Step 4. Your money proof: the Letter of Award

What the pages say. A self-funded student shows "992 EUR net per month" for up to a year (EUR 11,904 for a two-year course) by a blocked account, a formal obligation from someone in Germany, or a part-time job. A scholarship holder does not. The Federal Foreign Office: "Proof of sufficient funds is also taken as satisfied if the stay is being financed by a scholarship from public funds or a scholarship from an organization recognized in Germany or a scholarship financed by public funds in the country of origin, if the Federal Foreign Office, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) or another German organization granting scholarships has been responsible for providing the link to a German higher education institution." A German university's page for its DAAD scholars says it plainly (HTW Berlin, whose course is not on this year's EPOS list): "For DAAD scholarship holders, the Letter of Award will be sufficient proof of funding during studies. The Letter of Award will be sent to the German Embassy by the DAAD."

Do. Upload your Letter of Award where the form asks your proof of financial means, and carry the original. Do not open a blocked account. The missions' own money page and printable list name only a blocked account or a formal obligation, and no page of theirs names the Letter of Award; if the portal refuses your file for the money, write to the Consulate General's FAQ address, info@lago.auswaertiges-amt.de, with your full name, date of birth, passport number and reference number: "I hold a DAAD scholarship from German public funds (Letter of Award attached). The Federal Foreign Office's FAQ says such a scholarship is the proof of funds. Which upload does it go under?"

Step 5. The appointment and the interview

Do.

1. Arrive early. "Applicants who arrive late for their appointment cannot be accommodated and must book a new appointment."
2. Bring the printed booking, your sorted file, your originals and your passport. No proxies: you appear yourself.
3. Pay nothing for the visa (Cost, below).
4. Answer the officer's questions on your course and your plans: "There will also be a few questions". Applicants say Lagos also sets a short written test (From applicants who did it, below).

Cost. No visa fee for you: the missions waive the national visa fee for "Foreign nationals receiving a scholarship from public funds during their stay in Germany, as well as their spouse or partner and minor children, as long as they are covered by the funding." The fee for others is EUR 75 (about ₦112,275), "payable at the current exchange rate of the German mission in Nigerian Naira in cash or via POS", and "not refundable in case of visa rejection". Your costs are your travel to Lagos or Abuja, your photographs, your copies and your courier envelope.

Time. "Visa applications of students need amongst other things the approval of the competent German alien´s authority. Therefore the processing time for student visas may take several weeks, in individual cases even months." A DAAD scholar is spared that approval: under section 34 of the Residence Ordinance, the visa needs no consent from the foreigners authority for someone placed for study by a German academic organisation that awards scholarships from public funds, and receiving such a scholarship; the same for her spouse and minor children. No mission page states a time for scholarship holders. The missions offer no faster processing, and ask applicants not to chase a status before three months have passed with no word from them. Follow your application on the Consular Services Portal: "You can check the current status of your application online".

Your health insurance for the visa. "If a positive decision has been made on your visa, you will be asked to provide an incoming health insurance." "This insurance must not include any cancellation clauses for long-term stays". The DAAD: "DAAD scholarship holders do not have to organise their own insurance. This is all taken care of by the DAAD." Ask your DAAD contact on the portal for your insurance confirmation the day your Letter of Award comes. No page says whether the mission takes the DAAD's insurance as the incoming health insurance; if the confirmation has not come when the mission asks, buy an incoming policy that meets the standard of the German Social Code, Book V (SGB V), the German statutory health insurance law the mission names, and keep the receipt.

You are done when your visa is in your passport, you have checked every detail on the sticker ("it is your duty to verify whether the information printed on the visa sticker is correct and complete and to report any errors to the consulate immediately"), and your originals are back.

If it goes wrong.

• A refusal. "Since 1st July 2025, it is no longer possible to appeal against visa application rejections to the diplomatic mission abroad." The refusal notice "gives the grounds on which it was rejected". You can "submit a new visa application at any time", with every paper again, or file an action at the Berlin Administrative Court within 1 month of the notice: the court's language is German, its fee is "currently set at about 480 euro" (about ₦718,560), a lawyer is not required, and "processing times of several months can generally be expected". Tell your course and your DAAD contact the day the refusal comes, with the notice.
• Missing papers. "Can I submit missing documents after my appointment? No." Bring everything on the day.
• Lagos has no date for you. Write to the Consulate General's FAQ address above with your details. If you live in an Abuja state, email the Embassy as in Step 2.

From applicants who did it. Applicants who went to the Lagos student visa interview in 2025 say they were given a short written test on their bachelor's subject and the master's: engineering applicants on force, Ohm's law and a capacitor, then algebra; computer science on algorithms, operating systems and HTTP; economics on opportunity cost and GDP, then arithmetic; "I was given 10 questions in total". They report refusals for weak subject knowledge, for a master's "not aligned" with the first degree, and for low grades. A DAAD scholar was refused in Lagos on 16 June 2026 on "specific subject knowledge", after her language course had begun on 1 June. So revise the basics of your degree and of your master's core subjects, and be ready to say in two sentences how the master's follows from your degree and your work.

Applicants also report the scholarship lane: on the Consular Services Portal, scholarship holders saw "SUBMIT FOR PRELIMINARY REVIEW" where others saw "JOIN WAITLIST". A DAAD scholar in April 2025: "I applied online 6th April and I have been approved on 15th and gotten an appointment date." In April 2026 a DAAD scholar found Lagos "at full capacity" and was asked to join a waitlist, while a colleague in Abuja got dates "after only email correspondence". Applicants describe the day in Lagos: arrive by 6:30 for a 7:30 appointment, no bags, every original with its copy behind it, no staples, and five hours at the consulate. The spouse of a DAAD scholar was told in Lagos in 2025 that no fees were being collected from the family of a DAAD scholar. One DAAD scholar in 2026 had to buy her own insurance because the DAAD's had not come. Advice that a refusal can be appealed to the mission is out of date since 1 July 2025.

If your family is coming. The fee waiver covers your spouse and your minor children "as long as they are covered by the funding", and section 34 spares them the foreigners authority's consent. The Federal Foreign Office takes a student's family usually only if the student holds a residence permit, "if the marriage existed at the time of said permit being granted and if the duration of the foreigner's stay in the Federal territory is expected to exceed one year", and "the student has to be able to support himself/herself and his/her family without assistance of public funds." The DAAD pays family allowances only if your funding lasts at least six months (Stage 13). Applicants say the DAAD asked one Nigerian scholar for her marriage certificate during the application, that a DAAD scholar was told "the spouse support letter is only issued after October (when the degree starts)", and that one spouse in Lagos was asked for A1 German after the interview while another was not.

Same as Chevening and the Commonwealth Master's. The UK's Student visa is a different visa, with its own TB test and centres. If you hold both a UK and a German award, you take only one (Part 1).

Next. Travel to Germany (Stage 12).

The missions' University studies, visa, booking, fees, financial means, health insurance and FAQ pages, the Federal Foreign Office's FAQs and the Residence Ordinance in this chapter were updated on 10 October 2026.

Stage 12. Travel to Germany

Back to the short stages

Your visa is granted. Now book your travel for the start of your German course, arrange your first room, and carry the money for your first weeks.

Do.

1. Travel for the German course, not the semester. Your Letter of Award gives the German course's start date and place, if the DAAD gives you one; last year's brochure gave Freiburg's and Heidelberg's DAAD scholars 2 months before the master's.
2. Book your flight. The DAAD "grants an allowance towards travel expenses in the form of a lump sum. You can find more information on the travel allowance in the respective Call for Applications"; the EPOS call names no amount, and no page says when it is paid. Flensburg's SEDev course, for one, tells its DAAD scholars that they "are expected to finance the flight to Germany and the first month of their stay in Germany from their own funds". Pay your flight yourself. The DAAD's travel allowance is a lump sum; its amount and when it is paid are in your award.
3. Carry money for your first month. No page states when the first DAAD payment reaches you. The DAAD: "Scholarship payments will not always be sufficient to cover all living expenses, especially in university towns with high rents, so you may need to contribute some of your own funds." Freiburg puts a month's living costs at "usually between 850€ and 950€" (about ₦1.27 million to ₦1.42 million); Heidelberg's FAQ "approximately €991" (about ₦1.48 million).
4. Find your first room early. Freiburg, for a room in a student hostel (a hall of residence): "Monthly rent for a room in a hall of residence generally costs between 280 and 450 Euro" (about ₦419,160 to ₦673,650); "It is best to already start looking for accommodation as early as August or September. In October it is very difficult to find accommodation." Its student residences are at swfr.de/wohnen. A landlord in Germany may ask a deposit of at most three months' rent without service charges, and you may pay it "in drei gleichen monatlichen Teilzahlungen", three equal monthly parts.
5. Pay any deposit your course asks before you travel. Flensburg charges every student a security deposit of EUR 1,230 and a further deposit of EUR 1,500 before travel, and "DAAD does not cover those deposits." Read your own course's page for any such line.
6. Pack your visa file in your hand luggage. "The issuance of a visa does not constitute a right of entry. The final decision is made by the border police upon entry into the Schengen area. It is possible that, in addition to your passport with the valid visa, the border police will also ask you to present documents upon entry, as well as proof of health insurance. You should therefore take a set of your visa documents with you on your trip." Carry your Letter of Award, your admission letter, your insurance confirmation and your originals.
7. Never travel on a visitor visa. Freiburg: "IMPORTANT: Do not in any case enter Germany with a tourist visa!"

What you need. Your passport with the visa, your visa file, money for your first month, your first room's address.

Cost. Your flight; your first month's rent and food; at some courses a deposit.

Time. On the date in your Letter of Award: before the German course, if your award gives one.

You are done when you land with your passport, your visa file, your money for the first month and your first room's address.

If it goes wrong. If your visa is late for the German course, tell your DAAD contact on the portal and your course the day you know. Applicants who did it say DAAD scholars elsewhere waited past the start of their language course in 2025 and 2026; one got the visa ten days after the scholarship began.

From applicants who did it. A Nigerian DAAD master's scholar in 2025: "a preparatory language course was paid for already by daad for me to attend before I can begin school". Scholars arriving in 2026 say the first payment can come days or weeks after they arrive, and asked how it reaches them before they hold a German account. Keep your first month's money.

Next. Arrival and your first term (Stage 13).

The DAAD's applicant pages, the missions' visa page and the courses' pages in this chapter were updated on 10 October 2026.

Stage 13. Arrival and your first term

Back to the short stages

You have landed. Now register your address, open a bank account, enrol, apply for your residence permit, and start your German course.

Do, in this order.

1. Register your address within two weeks. "Most important is registering at the residents' registration office. You cannot, for example, open a bank account until you have done this." "Once you have found a room or a flat in Germany, you have to go to the Einwohnermeldeamt (residents' registration office) within two weeks." Bring your passport with the visa and your landlord's written confirmation that you have moved in; the landlord must give it within the two weeks, and if the landlord refuses, tell the registration office at once.
2. Open a bank account. "Most banks offer free current accounts for students." By law a bank that offers accounts must offer a basic account to anyone lawfully in the EU, "unverzüglich, spätestens jedoch innerhalb von zehn Geschäftstagen", at the latest within ten business days of the request. Send the DAAD your account details through the portal's messages, whose topics include "Financial Affairs".
3. Enrol at your university. "Usually you will have to go to the registrar's office in person on a certain date." "Enrollment deadlines are often short. If you are too late or forget documents you will not be able to enrol." Freiburg: "It is important that you are registered before the semester begins", and you bring your acceptance letter; your passport with the visa or residence permit; proof of health insurance; the receipt for "the registration and the so-called social fee (€ 180)"; the receipt for tuition, if applicable (not for a DAAD-EPOS scholar at Freiburg); the registration form; 2 passport photos; "Original or originally certified copies of your first degree (Bachelor), degree certificate and transcripts"; your language proof in the original or a certified copy; and your school certificate as a simple copy. "Once you are enrolled, you will immediately receive a letter of confirmation. It can serve as a temporary replacement for your student ID".
4. Pay your semester contribution. "The semester contribution varies between higher education institutions and comes to between 70 and 430 EUR" (about ₦104,790 to ₦643,710), paid when you enrol and before each new semester. Freiburg's fees page says EUR 190 a semester ("as of Summer Semester 2025", about ₦284,430); its arrival page says EUR 180 (about ₦269,460). Pay what the university's invoice shows. Oldenburg's contribution is about EUR 400 a semester, EUR 75 less for a DAAD scholar.
5. Apply for your residence permit at the Ausländerbehörde. "After you arrive in Germany, you must contact the competent Aliens Authority (Ausländerbehörde) immediately." Apply before your entry visa ends. Bring: "Passport, with visa where required"; "Certificate of matriculation from your higher education institution"; "Registration certificate from the residents' registration office"; "Proof of sufficient funds" (your Letter of Award); "Health insurance"; "Payment of a fee of up to 100 EUR (It's best to bring cash.)" (about ₦149,700); and "Possibly passport photographs, tenancy agreement and health certificate". The law exempts a person "die für ihren Aufenthalt im Bundesgebiet ein Stipendium aus öffentlichen Mitteln erhalten" (whose stay is paid by a scholarship from public funds) from the permit's fees (section 52(5) of the Residence Ordinance): show your Letter of Award and ask the office to apply it. "It can take several months until the card is ready." It is "ususally issued for a period of up to two years" and must be extended in time; a course shorter than two years gets a permit for the course only.
6. Start your German course. It is compulsory where your scholarship includes it. "However, it is not realistic to reach the level required for university admission within the framework of these courses if you have no or only very limited German language skills by then": that line is for German-taught courses. For a scholarship longer than six months the DAAD "will pay the costs of one DUO module", an online German course.
7. Your health insurance. "DAAD scholarship holders do not have to organise their own insurance. This is all taken care of by the DAAD." "with enrolment, (international) students are also automatically insured through the higher education institution's accident insurance". Do not sign up with a public health insurer as a DAAD scholar; that is for students the DAAD does not insure, "about 120-130 euros per month" (about ₦179,640 to ₦194,610).
8. The broadcasting fee. Every dwelling pays EUR 18.36 a month (about ₦27,485); in a WG, a shared flat, "only one resident is always required to register", and "Erasmus students or other grant holders are in principle required to pay the fee." A room in a hall of residence on a shared hallway counts as a dwelling.

Your money in the year. EUR 992 a month (about ₦1.49 million) for a graduate. Under conditions, a rent subsidy: "If you are in Germany alone, without accompanying children or spouse/registered partner, and are studying or researching in a place with particularly expensive rents (rent levels III to VII), you may be able to receive a monthly rent subsidy of a maximum of EUR 350"; "If you live together with your family (spouse or registered partner and/or children) in a flat in Germany, you can apply for a rent subsidy in any place in Germany." Ask the DAAD on the portal, under Financial Affairs, whether your town is at rent level III to VII. The DAAD puts living costs at "between 900 and 1,200 Euros per month" (about ₦1.35 million to ₦1.80 million) by town, and "students have expenses totalling an average of 876 euros per month" (the 2023 survey).

Working while you study. "Scholarship holders wishing to work part-time during their scholarship period, i.e. pursue gainful employment or an unpaid internship, always require the approval of DAAD. It is necessary that your academic supervisor or course coordinator must also give their consent." "Additional income exceeding EUR 603 gross per month shall be deducted from the monthly scholarship payment and may affect a potential entitlement to a rent subsidy". The law allows a student 140 full days or 280 half days of work a year; work as a student assistant at the university does not count against them. The minimum wage "Since January 2026 it stands at 13.90 EUR per hour", and a minijob, a small side job, earns "up to 556 EUR per month without having to pay taxes" (about ₦832,332). "you may be deported if you break" the rules.

Your family. "Under certain conditions, DAAD offers an allowance for accompanying spouses, child allowance and insurance benefits for spouses, registered partners and children". "The "partner allowance" is 276 euros per month" (about ₦413,172). "If you are not entitled to state child benefit, you can apply for a DAAD child allowance in the amount of the state child benefit. Currently, you receive 259 euros per month per child" (about ₦387,723). "If the funding period is less than 6 months, no family benefits will be granted." The DAAD's insurance covers accompanying family members from day one.

Where. The DAAD's Information for scholarship applicants, opens in a new tab, its Registering, opens in a new tab and Enrolling, opens in a new tab pages, and your course's arrival page (Freiburg: Upon arrival, opens in a new tab).

You are done when your address is registered, your account is open and with the DAAD, you are enrolled, your residence permit is applied for, and your German course has started.

If it goes wrong. If your first payment has not come, write to the DAAD on the portal under Financial Affairs, with your arrival date and your account; applicants in 2026 report waiting weeks for an answer by hotline, so write, and keep a copy. If the foreigners authority charges you the permit fee, pay it and keep the receipt.

From applicants who did it. Applicants with other DAAD scholarships in 2026 say the first payment came days or weeks after arrival, and that portal messages were answered slowly.

Next. When the course ends (Stage 14).

The DAAD's applicant, registering, enrolling, finances, health insurance and side jobs pages, the laws cited, the broadcasting fee's page and Freiburg's pages in this chapter were updated on 10 October 2026.

Stage 14. When the course ends

Back to the short stages

You have finished your course. Now choose: go home to the work the scholarship trained you for, or use the time the law gives a German graduate to look for a job.

What EPOS expects. The DAAD looks for candidates who "can prove their motivation is development-related and be expected to take on social responsibility and initiate and support processes of change in their personal and professional environment after their training/scholarship", and its checklist asks your employer's line that you will be re-employed "after returning to the home country". The EPOS entry states no rule that you must leave Germany after the course.

If you stay to look for a job. The law gives a graduate of a German course a residence permit to look for work: "Sie wird ... für einen Zeitraum von bis zu 18 Monaten erteilt" (it is issued for up to 18 months), if your living costs are secured, and it cannot be extended beyond that (section 20 of the Residence Act). A state's service text: "During the job search, any gainful employment is permitted and does not require a permit"; you need a valid study permit, your finished degree, and your living costs and health insurance covered "without claiming public benefits"; "Fee 98,00 EUR" (about ₦146,706); the card "takes about 4 to 6 weeks"; apply "at least 8 days before your valid residence permit expires". The DAAD: "When you have found such a position you can convert your residence permit into a work visa for qualified professionals or into an EU Blue Card", and "unless you are seeking a job in research or IT, employers will probably expect you to be fluent in German."

The EU Blue Card. For a graduate in a job that matches the degree, at a salary of at least 50 percent of the yearly pension contribution ceiling, or 45.3 percent for a degree earned within three years (section 18g): in 2026, EUR 50,700 or EUR 45,934.20 a year. "Holders of an EU Blue Card will receive a settlement permit after 27 months in Germany if they have been in highly-qualified employment and paid contributions into a pension fund during this period, and are able to make themselves understood in German on a basic level. The qualification period is shortened to 21 months for persons with an adequate knowledge of German (level B1)."

Settling for good. A skilled worker gets a settlement permit after three years on a work permit, 36 months of pension contributions and B1 German; for someone who finished a degree in Germany, "Die Frist ... verkürzt sich auf zwei Jahre" and the contributions "auf 24 Monate", two years and 24 months (section 18c).

From applicants who did it. Applicants say interviewers asked whether they would return home. Answer it truthfully and the same every time: your letter, your employer's papers and your interview all speak of your return.

Same as Chevening. An EPOS scholarship does not close Chevening to you afterwards: Chevening refuses only someone who has studied in the UK on a UK government-funded scholarship (Part 1).

Next. You hold your German master's.

The Residence Act, the job-search service text, the DAAD's career page and BAMF's Blue Card page in this chapter were updated on 10 October 2026.

Part 4. What can stop you

These are the problems Nigerian applicants meet, in the order they meet them, and what you do about each.

Your deadlines

Write each date down the day it arrives.

What stops people, and what you do

A degree line you do not meet. A 2:2 or an HND does not meet EPOS: the DAAD's office for Nigeria asks at least Second Class (Upper Division), and the DAAD a bachelor's degree. A later master's does not lift a 2:2 at any course: the office for Nigeria's line is on your bachelor's, and Freiburg reads only your bachelor's grade. Part 5 says what you do instead.

Two years you do not have. Count only full-time, paid, related work after your bachelor's, each job with its certificate. Freiburg refuses internships and voluntary work and counts full-time work only, and no EPOS page counts NYSC. For a paid NGO job, follow Part 1 ("A paid NGO job"). With less than two years on the day you send your file, wait for the next window (Part 8).

A degree older than six years. "the latest academic degree should not be older than 6 years". Without a later degree, EPOS is not open to you.

A transcript that does not come, or shows no CGPA. Request it the day you decide, from the portal only, and pay no one to "fast track" it. If it shows only your class, attach your university's grading scale and your CGPA (Stage 5). Without it, your file is incomplete, and no course in this guide takes an incomplete file.

An employer's paper with no stamp or signature. "If a stamp or a signature when required on a document is missing, DAAD will reject the application." Ask for letterhead, an ink signature, a stamp and today's date, in writing, in the first week (Stage 3).

A referee who vanishes. Replace them the same day. At Freiburg your referee emails the course before 15 October; a letter you forward yourself is not recognised (Stage 4).

Three courses in the wrong order, or two letters that differ. List your courses in the same order on every DAAD form, and send one identical priority letter to every course. Freiburg: "If you apply for more than one EPOS programme without indicating it in the DAAD application form, DAAD will exclude you from the application process." (Stages 6 and 7)

A name or date of birth that differs. Apply for your transcript in your admission name; change passport data with the Nigeria Immigration Service; bring a court affidavit for the visa. Fix it before you upload (Stage 5).

Sending to the DAAD instead of the course. "Applications sent to the DAAD will not be forwarded to the respective course/university." Send only to your courses (Stage 7).

Missing the hour. No page states the hour on 15 October. Send by the end of 14 October in Lagos (Stage 7).

Not answering the DAAD in time. Watch your email and the portal from the day you send; a portal draft is deleted after 14 days with no change, and the status can change with no email (Stage 9).

A tuition bill you did not expect. The DAAD does not pay tuition. Freiburg charges a DAAD-EPOS scholar none; ask Heidelberg and Oldenburg in writing what you pay when you choose them (Stage 2), and keep the reply for the visa (Stage 11).

A health condition the DAAD's insurance excludes. Tell your DAAD contact before you travel: the DAAD funds you only if your insurance covers it (Stage 10).

A visa that does not come in time, or is refused. Apply the week your Letter of Award comes, under "Study, Specific qualifications", with a complete, sorted file. Revise your degree's basics for the interview. If it is refused, read the grounds, and either apply again with every paper or go to the Berlin Administrative Court within 1 month; there is no appeal to the mission (Stage 11).

Agents and sellers. Booking a visa appointment is free, and "Agencies and other facilitators do not have any special or preferential access". The DAAD-ID is free, and the DAAD tells you not to pay anyone to register you. Uni-assist "does not cooperate with commercial agencies". Applicants in 2025 and 2026 were offered paid "DAAD application reviews" and WhatsApp "scholarship groups"; no EPOS page names a fee or an agent.

Running out of money in the first month. No page says when the first payment comes. Carry your first month's money (Stage 12).

Part 5. If you already did some of this

Start at the first stage you have not finished.

You hold a 2:2. EPOS is not open to you, at any course and in any window, with or without a later master's. The DAAD's office for Nigeria asks "Bachelor's Degree graded at least Second Class (Upper Division)", and a master's does not change the class of your bachelor's; Freiburg reads only your bachelor's grade, even after a master's, and Oldenburg asks "at least ... the Second Upper Division". More years of work do not change your class either. Two UK routes take a 2:2 on terms of their own:

• The Commonwealth Master's. Its line is "a lower second-class degree and a relevant postgraduate qualification (usually a Master's degree)". You apply through a nominator, a body that puts candidates forward to the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission (the CSC), as well as to the CSC itself. Nigeria's own nominator, the Federal Scholarship Board, asks more, so through the Board a 2:2 does not qualify: "A First Degree of at least Second Class Upper for Masters". Without a postgraduate qualification, a 2:2 does not qualify for the Commonwealth Master's at all, unless you apply as a disabled applicant. Disabled applicants without a 2:1 have a route of their own through the Commonwealth Disabled People's Forum. The Commonwealth Master's guide, opens in a new tab walks every nominator.
• Chevening. Chevening sets no line of its own on a 2:2. It asks "an undergraduate degree that will enable you to gain entry onto a postgraduate programme at a UK university", "typically equivalent to an upper second-class (2:1)", and sends you to each university: "Please contact individual universities to check if your qualification meets their entry requirements." So its degree line turns on the UK course you choose: Birmingham's MPH page, for one, has a line for "Applicants with a 2:2 degree plus relevant work experience". Chevening also asks "at least 2800 hours of work experience" over at least two years (Part 1).

With a 2:2 and one year's work, where you stand today. With a 2:2 and no postgraduate qualification, the Commonwealth Master's is not open to you, unless you apply as a disabled applicant through the Commonwealth Disabled People's Forum. Through the Board it is not open with a 2:2 at all. Chevening's Nigeria window for 2027-2028 is closed, and Chevening asks at least 2,800 hours "acquired over a minimum of two years" after your degree, so with one year's work it is not open to you yet either. What you do now:

• For the Commonwealth Master's, a postgraduate qualification. The CSC's line opens to a 2:2 with "a relevant postgraduate qualification (usually a Master's degree)", held by the September your scholarship would start ("By September 2027" in this window's line), through a nominator other than the Board. The Commonwealth Master's guide, opens in a new tab gives each nominator's own line.
• For Chevening, your hours. Keep working: Chevening counts full-time and part-time jobs, voluntary work and paid or unpaid internships after your degree, so log your hours from the day your degree ended. Its Nigeria page gives no date for the next window: "Keep an eye on our channels to be the first to know when applications open again." When it opens, read your UK course's own line on a 2:2, as Birmingham's MPH page above prints one.

You hold one year of work, not two. You cannot apply this window. Keep working in a full-time, paid, related job, and ask your employer now for a work certificate of your dates. Your two years are complete two years after your first paid, related job began, if you have worked without a break since; with one year done today, that is one year from now. Apply in the first window whose close falls after that date (Part 8). If that date falls after 15 October 2027, your window is October 2028. Check your degree's age then: it must still be no older than six years.

You were told you need German. For an English-taught course you need none to apply and none for the visa; Heidelberg says "Knowledge of the German language is NOT required". The DAAD gives you a German course in Germany after the award ("Do you need German?", Part 1). Only TU Dresden's Textile Machinery course is taught in German.

You hold an HND. EPOS asks a bachelor's degree, and anabin rates the HND below university level. EPOS is not open to you with an HND alone. A Bachelor of Technology is a degree in anabin; with one, read Stage 1, then go to "From today" at the top of this guide: it tells you whether you can still finish this window or go to the closed plan (Part 8).

You worked three years in an NGO. Count the years if the job was paid, full-time, related to your course and proved by work certificates: a paid job is not the voluntary work Freiburg refuses. Send your file with them counted, and the same week write to the DAAD's office for Nigeria with the question in Part 1 ("A paid NGO job"); if it answers no, count them out and plan the window in which your other paid work makes two years. Related means related to the course you choose, so choose your courses first (Stage 2, or Stage C5 in the closed plan; Part 1, "Your work"). Check your degree's age too: it must be no older than six years on the day you apply. Then go to "From today" at the top of this guide: it tells you whether you can still finish this window or go to the closed plan (Part 8).

You already hold your transcript. Check that it shows every year's marks, your CGPA and the grading scale (Stage 5). Then go to "From today" at the top of this guide: it tells you whether you can still finish this window or go to the closed plan (Part 8).

You already hold an IELTS or TOEFL result. Freiburg takes IELTS 7 with no limit on its age, and TOEFL no older than two years; Oldenburg any test at B2 that is not expired; Heidelberg B2 from an authorised centre (Stage 5). For the visa, for an English-taught course, the law asks language proof only where your university did not check it at admission; carry the English evidence your course accepted. Then go to "From today" at the top of this guide: it tells you whether you can still finish this window or go to the closed plan (Part 8).

You already hold your employer's papers. Check the signature, the stamp, the letterhead and the date; Heidelberg wants the letter "of recent date" (Stage 3). Then go to "From today" at the top of this guide: it tells you whether you can still finish this window or go to the closed plan (Part 8).

You applied last year and were not chosen. Apply again with a stronger letter and fresh dated papers: applicants have won on a second or third attempt. Your two years and your degree's age are counted again on the day you apply. Then go to "From today" at the top of this guide: it tells you whether you can still finish this window or go to the closed plan (Part 8).

You have sent your file. Start at Stage 8.

The DAAD has asked you to upload to the portal. Start at Stage 9, today.

You hold a self-funded offer and no scholarship. That is a different route: you pay tuition and living costs, and show EUR 11,904 in a blocked account for the visa (Stage 10).

You hold your Letter of Award. Start at Stage 10, then Stage 11 the same week.

Your visa is granted. Start at Stage 12.

Part 6. The time, stage by stage

• Stage 1, the fit check: one evening.
• Stage 2, the courses: an evening or two.
• Stage 3, the employer's papers: no time stated; ask in the first week.
• Stage 4, the referees: no time stated; Freiburg's letters reach the course before 15 October.
• Stage 5, the papers: ABU 24 to 48 hours for an e-copy and 5 to 7 days for a hard copy; the other universities state none; one graduate online waited more than eight months (2025); a fresh passport 42 days after enrolment; TOEFL scores 3 days after the test.
• Stage 6, the CV and the letter: a week of evenings.
• Stage 7, sending: by 15 October 2026; send by the end of 14 October; on uni-assist, your file complete and paid by the course's deadline (uni-assist advises ideally 8 weeks ahead, and evaluates papers from Africa in 2 to 3 weeks).
• Stage 8, the course's selection: results from the end of January (Oldenburg) to February (Freiburg, Heidelberg), with the interview.
• Stage 9, the DAAD Portal: one sitting the day the DAAD writes; the selection runs to March.
• Stage 10, the result: the Letter of Award by about March; no time stated for the Declaration of Acceptance.
• Stage 11, the visa: "several weeks, in individual cases even months", without the foreigners authority's consent for a DAAD scholar; no page states a time for scholarship holders.
• Stage 12, travel: before the German course, on the date in your Letter of Award (last year, about two months before the master's at Freiburg and Heidelberg).
• Stage 13, arrival: the address within two weeks; the bank within ten business days of your request; the residence permit card "several months".
• Stage 14, after the course: up to 18 months to look for work.

The whole journey: from the close on 15 October 2026 to the master's in September or October 2027 is about eleven months, and the German course, if your award gives one, starts before it (last year, two months before at Freiburg and Heidelberg); then 12 to 24 months of study, by course.

Part 7. The money, all of it

Every amount in the order you meet it, for you alone, applying to Freiburg, Heidelberg and Oldenburg in this window.

The two total rows leave out a passport, a WAEC PIN, your fares, any deposit a course asks before you travel (Flensburg charges EUR 1,230 and EUR 1,500, which "DAAD does not cover"), your rent deposit (at most three months' rent without service charges, payable in three monthly parts), and tuition at a course that charges a DAAD scholar.

What the scholarship pays. EUR 992 a month (about ₦1.49 million) for a graduate; "Payments towards health, accident and personal liability insurance cover"; a travel allowance as "a lump sum", "unless these expenses are covered by the home country or another source of funding"; a German course in Germany of up to six months where the DAAD's committee finds you need one, and for a scholarship longer than six months one DUO online module. Under conditions: a rent subsidy of up to EUR 350 a month (about ₦523,950); a partner allowance of EUR 276 a month (about ₦413,172); a child allowance of EUR 259 a month per child (about ₦387,723); insurance for your family. No visa fee for you or for your spouse and minor children covered by the funding.

What it does not pay. Tuition: "DAAD does not pay tuition fees for its scholarship holders." At Freiburg a DAAD-EPOS scholar pays no study fee: Baden-Württemberg's ministry exempts "DAAD ... Stipendiaten, die in einem vom DAAD als entwicklungspolitischem Studiengang im Programm EPOS ... eingeschrieben sind" (DAAD scholars enrolled in an EPOS course), and Freiburg's page says the same. At Heidelberg (EUR 14,100, about ₦21.1 million, for the year; last year's brochure said "special arrangements" apply to DAAD scholarship holders) and Oldenburg (EUR 1,500 a semester, about ₦2.25 million), no page says what a DAAD scholar pays: ask in writing when you choose them (Stage 2). If no reply waives them, the worst case is Oldenburg's EUR 3,000 for the first year (about ₦4.49 million) and Heidelberg's EUR 14,100 (about ₦21.1 million), of which Heidelberg asks a non-refundable EUR 1,000 (about ₦1.50 million) on admission; the missions then ask proof of the first year's payment for your visa (Stage 11). Registration and enrolment fees are yours: "there may be registration or enrollment fees you have to pay."

If you work. Income above EUR 603 gross a month (about ₦902,691) is deducted from the scholarship.

For each family member who comes. The DAAD's partner allowance and child allowance above, and its insurance. No visa fee. Their flights, and a home big enough for the family, are yours; the DAAD's rent subsidy can be applied for in any town when your family lives with you.

For a self-funded place, if you are not chosen. EUR 992 a month for up to a year in a blocked account for the visa (EUR 11,904, about ₦17.8 million, for a two-year course), the course's tuition (EUR 1,500 a semester at Oldenburg), and the visa fee of EUR 75.

Part 8. If the window has closed: the closed plan

After 15 October 2026 the windows for study from October 2027 are closed on Freiburg's, Heidelberg's and Oldenburg's courses, and nothing can be added to them; TU Berlin's closed on 31 August 2026. If your row in "From today" sent you here before the close, the same plan is yours: it is the work that makes you ready on the day the next window opens.

If you are reading this after 15 October 2026. Before you give up the 2027 intake, open the pages of the other 20 courses on the DAAD's list (Stage 2 links each one). A course whose own page shows its EPOS window still open is open to you: go back to "From today" and read its close in place of 15 October. If none is open, this plan is yours.

Self-funded places are not the scholarship. Heidelberg's self-funded round runs "from 16 October 2026 to 31 March 2027 (planned; details to follow)", Oldenburg's regular places close on 15 January 2027, and Freiburg's regular round closes on 15 May of every year. On those places you pay the course's tuition and your living costs, and show EUR 11,904 (about ₦17.8 million) in a blocked account for the visa (Part 7). This guide does not walk them.

When the next window opens. Each course prints its window as a rule for every year, so the next windows, for study from 2028, are the ones these rules give. No page has printed a 2027 date yet (updated on 10 October 2026).

• Freiburg MEG: "Application deadline: 15 October of every year (one year before the course starts). Application period opens 1 July of every year." On its own rule, 1 July to 15 October 2027. (This year its scholarship page gave 15 June and its news page 15 July for the opening; all three gave 15 October for the close.)
• Heidelberg MScIH: "between 15 August and 15 October of the year preceding the commencement of Master's Programme". On its own rule, 15 August to 15 October 2027.
• Oldenburg SuRE: the EPOS close is 15 October, "one year before entry", and "the application button will be available as from August 15". On its own rule, 15 August to 15 October 2027.
• TU Berlin Urban Management: "June 15th until August 31st of the year BEFORE you intend to start". On its own rule, 15 June to 31 August 2027.
• Ruhr University Bochum, Development Management: "Intake every two years - next intake 2028". No page says yet when its window for that intake opens.
• The DAAD's course list for 2028/2029: no page says yet when it comes. Choose from the 2027/2028 list, and check the new list the day the DAAD's entry links it: "the scholarship is only granted for the entire duration of the courses listed in the most current booklet."

In the app: the button reads Tell me when it opens. Tap it, and the app tells you when your courses' pages post their next window.

Do these stages now, in this order. Each one is the same work as the open-season stage it names, done without a deadline over it.

Stage C1. Check your fit for the next window

Back to the short stages

Do. Read Part 1, "Check that you can start", against your own papers, for the close you aim at: 15 October 2027 at Freiburg, Heidelberg and Oldenburg, 31 August 2027 at TU Berlin.

• Count your work to that close. Only full-time, paid, related jobs after your bachelor's, each with a work certificate you can get. If they make two years by the close, you can apply in 2027. If they make two years later, write down the first close that falls after your two years are complete.
• Count your degree's age to that close. For a close on 15 October 2027, your latest degree must have been finished not before 14 October 2021, for a file sent on 14 October 2027. Count from the earlier of your last exams and the date on your certificate.
• A 2:2 or an HND. No window opens EPOS to you: the lines in Part 1 do not change with time or with work. Go to Part 5.

Where. Part 1, "Check that you can start"; the DAAD's EPOS entry, opens in a new tab.

What you need. Your transcript, your degree certificate, the start and end dates of every job since your degree.

Cost and time. Free. One evening.

You are done when you have written down the close you will apply for, the day your two years are complete and the day your latest degree turns six years old.

If it goes wrong. If your two years are complete only days after a close, that close is not yours: the two years are counted "at the time of your application". Take the next one.

Stage C2. Keep your work, and keep your proof

Back to the short stages

Do.

1. Stay in a full-time, paid job related to the courses you will choose.
2. Every time you leave a job, ask that employer the same week for its work certificate: letterhead, a signature in ink, a stamp, the date, your exact start and end dates, your position, your main tasks, and that it was full-time (Stage 3).
3. Your current employer's letter of recommendation is asked "of current date": ask for it in the month you send your file, not now.
4. If you have a gap of more than three months since school, write down what you did in it, with its dates, for your CV.

Where. Your employer's HR office or your manager.

What you need. Your list of jobs and dates.

Cost and time. Free. No page states how long an employer takes: ask the week you leave a job.

You are done when every job since your degree has its signed, stamped work certificate, scanned in colour.

If it goes wrong. If a past employer has closed or will not answer, count only the work you can prove: TU Berlin counts work "only" with its certificates.

Stage C3. Get your papers out now

Back to the short stages

Do. Request your transcript now, the copy your university releases to you, with every year's marks, your CGPA and the grading scale (Stage 5, Step 1). In the same request, ask for your university's letter that your degree was taught in English (UNILAG's "English as a Medium"). Collect your degree certificate if you have not. Scan your WAEC or NECO certificate. Get your passport if you have none. Make your name and date of birth the same on every paper (Stage 5, Step 6).

Where. Your university's transcript portal (Stage 5 names the portals of UNILAG, UI, UNN, OAU and ABU); passport.immigration.gov.ng, opens in a new tab.

What you need. Your matric number and the name you were admitted with; for the passport, your NIN slip, a birth certificate or a declaration of age, your local government or indigene certificate and a passport photograph.

Cost. ₦5,000 to ₦25,000 a transcript at the universities in this guide; ₦5,000 for UNILAG's English letter; ₦100,000 or ₦200,000 for a passport. At UNILAG an uncollected certificate carries ₦10,000 after the year following convocation, plus ₦5,000 for every further year.

Time. ABU states 24 to 48 hours for an e-copy and 5 to 7 days for a hard copy; UNILAG, UI, UNN and OAU state no time, and one graduate wrote online in 2025 of waiting more than eight months. A fresh passport takes 42 days after enrolment.

You are done when your transcript with your CGPA and scale, your English letter, your degree certificate, your WAEC certificate and your passport's photo page are scanned, and your name reads the same on all of them.

If it goes wrong. Pay only on the portal: UNILAG warns that "under no condition should applicants make payment to any individual or organisation under the pretext of fast track". If your transcript shows no CGPA, get your university's grading scale on paper and attach it.

Stage C4. Settle your English

Back to the short stages

Do.

1. For Heidelberg and Oldenburg, your university's English letter from Stage C3 is your English evidence (Stage 5).
2. For Freiburg, its scholarship page exempts applicants who followed their entire university studies in English "in a country where English is the official language", but its application form says the medium-of-instruction box "can be recognized only in some cases". You have months, so settle it in writing. By 1 July 2027, the day its window opens on its own rule, email info-meg@unr.uni-freiburg.de with your university's letter: "I studied for my whole degree in English in Nigeria, where English is the official language. Here is my university's letter. Do you accept it in place of an English certificate for the DAAD-EPOS application?" If Freiburg confirms in writing, keep the reply for your file and sit no test for Freiburg. If it says no, or has not answered by 1 September 2027, book IELTS Academic or TOEFL iBT for a date before the close.
3. For TU Berlin, sit a test whatever you hold: "Applicants from countries where English is not the native language, but the official language or the language of instruction, still need to provide an English proficiency test" (IELTS 6, or TOEFL iBT 79 before January 2026 and 4.5 after).
4. Time a test so that it is still valid on the close: Freiburg takes IELTS "No limit of validity" and TOEFL "cannot be older than 2 years"; the DAAD's general line is that a certificate "should not be older than 3 years by the time of application".

Where. IDP Nigeria's test dates page for IELTS; your ETS account for TOEFL.

Cost. IELTS Academic on computer ₦299,000; TOEFL iBT $170 (about ₦226,610); UNILAG's English letter ₦5,000.

Time. TOEFL scores reach your ETS account 3 days after the test; IELTS on computer gives its result in 1 to 5 days.

You are done when you hold, for each course you will apply to, the English evidence that course takes, valid on its close.

If it goes wrong. If your score is under a course's line, sit again before the close; Freiburg asks IELTS 7 and TOEFL 95 (before 2026) or 5 (since).

Stage C5. Choose your courses, and write down their windows

Back to the short stages

Do.

1. Choose up to three courses from the DAAD's list that follow from your degree and your work (Stage 2, Step 1).
2. For each, write down from its own page: its window, how it takes the file, its documents in its order, its English rule, its entry lines and its fees (Stage 2, Step 2).
3. If a course charges tuition, email it the question in Stage 2, Step 2, and keep the reply.
4. Put the three in your order of priority, so that each one's result comes in time for the next (Stage 2, Step 3). If you choose TU Berlin, put it first in your diary: it closes on 31 August.

Where. The DAAD's List of all Postgraduate courses with application deadlines 2027/2028, opens in a new tab, and each course's page as the list links it.

What you need. Your transcript (for the entry lines) and your list of jobs.

Cost and time. Free. An evening or two.

You are done when you have up to three courses written in order, each with its window, how it takes the file, its documents, its English rule, its entry lines and its fees.

If it goes wrong. If a course's page shows no window for 2027 by June 2027, keep watching it weekly (Stage C7) and keep a second course whose window is printed.

Stage C6. Draft your CV and your letters, and line up your referees

Back to the short stages

Do.

1. Fill your notebook of examples (Stage 6, Step 1), and add to it through the year.
2. Write your Europass CV and your priority letter now (Stage 6), and for Freiburg its own letter to its five questions. Date, print and sign them in the month you send your file.
3. Ask your current manager and, for Freiburg, a lecturer from your degree whether they will write for you. They write and date the letters when the window opens: Freiburg wants a referee's letter "dated and not more than one year old", and Heidelberg the employer's "of recent date".

What you need. Your notebook, your work certificates, your transcript.

Cost and time. Free. A week of evenings.

You are done when your CV and your letters are drafted, and two referees have said yes.

If it goes wrong. If a referee leaves the job or goes silent, replace them now, not in the week of the close.

Stage C7. Watch the windows

Back to the short stages

Do.

• Open each of your courses' pages every month from May 2027, and every week from June 2027.
• In the app, tap Tell me when it opens.
• Freiburg holds online question sessions before its close; in 2026 they ran on 7 July, 4 August and 1 September at 14:00 CET. No page gives next year's dates yet.
• Only if your two years reach with your NYSC year, or rest on a paid NGO job, book a consultation with the DAAD's office for Nigeria in Accra, in person or online by Webex: Mondays 3pm to 6pm, Thursdays 10am to 11:30am (online only, in a group) and Fridays 11am to 1pm, Lagos time, from its appointment page, opens in a new tab. No fee is stated. Ask the question in Part 1 ("NYSC" or "A paid NGO job"), at least a month before the close you aim at. What the answer changes is in Part 1.
• Learn basic German online: Deutsche Welle's free courses (learngerman.dw.com), linked by the German missions in Nigeria.

You are done when the window opens and you go back to "From today" with everything in your hands.

If you were not chosen this window. Keep your work, and apply again with fresh dated papers (Stage 10). Your two years and your degree's age are counted again on the day you send. The amounts in Part 7 are this window's; the next window's are the ones its pages print then.

The courses' pages and the DAAD's pages in this part were updated on 10 October 2026.

"Registration and the DAAD ID are free of charge... Please do not use any third-party services to carry out your registration for a fee. The DAAD does not support such services." (the DAAD Portal's help, updated on 10 October 2026). "There is no application fee." (Heidelberg's MScIH FAQ, updated on 10 October 2026). "Booking an appointment is FREE OF CHARGE." (the German missions in Nigeria, updated on 10 October 2026).